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EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS 



CENTURY READINGS 

IN 

UNITED STATES HISTORY 

A series, made up from the best on this subject 
in The Century and St. Nicholas, for students 
of the upper grammar grades and the first year 
high school. Profusely illustrated. 

EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS 

THE COLONISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 

A NEW NATION 

THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 

THE CIVIL WAR 

THE PROGRESS OF A UNITED PEOPLE 

12ino. About 225 pages each. $.50 net. 

THE CENTURY CO. 




Statue of Columbus at Madrid. 



CENTURY READINGS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY 

EXPLORERS 
AND SETTLERS 



EDITED BY 

CHARLES L. BARSTOW 




NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1912 



E/^7 
.^z^ 



Copyright, 1912, by 
The Century Co. 



Published February^ igi2 



4 .S-7) 



C"CI.A30!t840 



CONTENTS 

THE EXPLORERS 



The Voyage of Columbus 
How Columbus Reckoned 
A New World .... 
The Earthly Paradise . 



PAGE 

The Vikings in America . . Cyrus Martin, Jr 3 

R. B. Smithey 15 

R. B. Smithey 23 

Columbus 31 

Columbus 34 

How Pepper Helped to Discover America 

K. R. Steege 35 

A Voyage to Virginia . . . Florence W. Snedeker ... 46 

Some Early Voyagers . . . Ernest Ingersol 57 

The Spanish Armada . . . Alfred T. Mahan and IVm. F. 

Tilton 68 

Anecdotes of Raleigh and Gilbert Retold from Hakluyt ... 78 

A Voyage to the West Indies Florence Snedeker .... 84 

The Fountain of Youth (poem) Hezekiah Butterzvorth ... 97 
The First American Traveler Charles F. Lummis . . . .101 

In Early Mexico J. T. Trowbridge iii 

How the Stone-Age Children Played 

C. C. Abbott 116 

Drake in California .... Hakluyt 122 

THE SETTLERS 

The England of the Pilgrims Tudor Jenks 127 

Elizabethan Boys L. H. Sturdevant . . . .133 

Jamestown Thomas N. Page 145 

The Lost Colony E. S. Brooks 156 

The Settlers and the Iroquois /. R. Simms 162 



viii Contents 

PAGE 

Old Dutch Times in New York T. W. Higginson 171 

The Mother City of Greater New York 

Mrs. Van Rensselaer . . .185 

How THE Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 

Asel Ames 189 

Christmas on the Mayflower E. C. Stanton 206 

Miles Standish and the Indians Tudor Jenks . . . ' . . . 210 

Index 221 



Acknowledgment is made of the courtesy of Messrs. Whitaker & Ray-Wiggin 
Co., for permission to use the poem " Columbus," and of Messrs. Dana Estes & 
Company for permission to use the poem " The Fountain of Youth." 



NOTE TO THE SERIES 

This series of Readers in United States History is in- 
tended to vivify with real human interest the narrative 
which is furnished in shorter histories and text-books. 

The stories illumine the causes of events and enable the 
youngest to see in the clearest light how our forefathers 
lived and why they acted as they did. They impart the 
spirit of history and assist the imagination in reconstruct- 
ing the story of early times. 

Some of the best lessons of the past are all but lost if 
they are not brought home to youth. The deeds of early 
heroes touch a responsive chord in the child's own im- 
pulses and moods — impulses and moods which our mod- 
ern life too early obliterates. So if these stories of the 
men who have made our country wdiat it is are to leave 
their strongest impression they should be read while the 
boy still wishes to go to sea, to fight Indians, to be a 
pioneer. 

Scattered through the volumes are many selections which 
are in their nature sources — the raw material of history. 
Often the great characters of the past are allowed to speak 
for themselves. 

Battles are not often described but rather the causes and 



X Note to the Series 

ideas that underlie the deeds are given, in order that the 
young may be acquainted with the elements of personal 
genius and national character. 

The daily life and habits of the people in home and 
schools, in public and private, in peace and w2lv, are shown 
on many a page and the illustrations are almost an album 
of history. 



SECTION I 
THE EXPLORERS 



COLUMBUS 

" My men grow mutinous day by day ; 

My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 
The stout mate thought of home ; a spray 

Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
" What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, 

If we sight naught but waves at dawn?" 
" Why, you shall say at break of day, 

' Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on ! ' " 



They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, 

Until at last the blanched mate said : 
" Why, now not even God would know 

Should I and all my men fall dead, 
These very winds forget their way, 

For God from these dread seas is gone. 
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say." — 

He said : " Sail on ! sail on ! and on ! " 

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate : 

" This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. 
He lifts his lip, he lies in wait, 

With lifted teeth, as if to bite ! 
Brave Admiral, say but one good word : 

What shall we do when hope is gone?" 
The words leapt like a leaping sword : 

" Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on ! " 

Then pale and worn, he kept his deck. 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
Of all dark nights! And then a speck — 

A light! a light! a light! a light! 
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! 

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. 
He gained a world. He gave that world 

Its grandest lesson : " On ! Sail on ! " 

Joaquin Miller. 

Ooprrifht 1897 by the Whltaker & Ray Co. 



EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS 

THE VIKINGS IN AMERICA 
By Cyrus Martin, Jr. 

The Northmen, in the seventh, eighth and ninth cen- 
turies inhabited the great peninsula of Norway and Swe- 
den, with branches estabHshed in Denmark, Finland, the 
Faroe Islands, and all about the coasts of Northern Eu- 
rope. They were a wild, rough and tumultuous race, so 
given to roving and adventure that they made their ap- 
pearance, at one time or another in their history, in every 
part of Europe which could be reached by sea. They cer- 
tainly visited the shores of the Mediterranean, and they 
once held such complete possession of a part of France that 
their name is still preserved in the title of the province of 
Normandy. Before the time of King Alfred, they ravaged 
England continually. 

These people, who have left their names all over Europe, 
were never welcome anywhere. Even at home, they quar- 
reled among themselves. And it would seem that when 
things grew uncomfortable for them in their own country, 
they took ship and sailed the sea, carrying destruction and 
terror wherever they went. The chiefs were called Jarls, 
or Earls, and the sons of chiefs to whom were given mari- 
time command were called Vikings. These were usually 
the younger sons, who were driven out by contentions at 

3 



4 Explorers and Settlers 

home, as well as by their own fierce desires, to find plunder 
and occupation in ravaging the coasts of the rich South- 
lands. In course of time, these wild sea-rovers were mas- 
ters of the seas of Europe. Their captains came to be 
known generally as Vikings. In these days we should 
call them pirates. Would you like to hear the rules which 
one of these terrible fellows laid down for the government 
of his crew? Here is an extract which has been handed 
down to us in Frithiof's Saga, or chronicle: 

Not a tent upon deck, and no sleeping ashore, within houses but 

enemies go. 
Vikings sleep on their shields, with their swords in their hands, 

and for tent have they heaven the blue. 

When wild hurricanes rage, hoist the sail high above; it is blithe 

on the rough rolling deep. 
Let her drive, let her drive ; he who strikes is afraid, and I 'd 

rather beneath the sea sleep. 

When the merchant ye meet, ye may spare his good ship; but 

the weaker his wealth must unfold. 
Thou art king on the wave; he is slave of his gain, and thy steel 

is as good as his gold. 

There is more of this, but these lines are enough to show 
you what sort of men were the Vikings of the North. 
Such a man, we may be sure, was Flokko, who, in the ninth 
century, discovered Iceland. It was said that one Naddok 
had been to Iceland before Flokko' s voyage of discovery, 
and that he, disgusted with the coldness of the region, 
which was supposed to be a peninsula, called the land 
Snowland. Then there is another story of one Gardar, 
who sailed all about the island and called it Gardarholm, 
or Gardar's Island. But the first actual settler is spoken 



The Vikings in America 5 

of in history somewhat disrespectfully, as '' a certain pyrate 
whose name was Flokko." Pirate he may have been, but 
he took with him families, cattle and tools, as if intending 
to live like an honest man. 

Warned by the trials which other voyagers had had 
when trying to find new lands, Flokko carried in his ship 
three ravens which had previously been consecrated by the 
pagan priests of Norway. Two ravens were supposed to 




Flokko sending out the ravens. 

bring to Odin, or Woden, the chief deity of the Northmen, 
news of all that happens in the world. And Flokko relied 
on the ravens to tell him when land was in sight. The 
first raven, when set free, returned to the land whence the 
ship had sailed; therefore, this was yet the nearest shore. 
The second was let loose some days afterward, and after 
wandering in the air, came back to the ship, showing thereby 
that there was no land in sight. But this and the third, 
when set at liberty after two days, mounted up into the 
sky, circled about as if to take a view of the horizon, and 



6 Explorers and Settlers 

then took a straight flight into the West. Flokko fol- 
lowed in that direction, and so reached the island for which 
he searched. 

The colony did not thrive. It was broken up, and the 
colonists returned to Norway, bringing an evil report of 
the land, which they called Iceland. But in 875, ten years 
after Flokko's failure, one Earl Ingolf, who had quarreled 



"a^ 




The discovery of Greenland. 



with one of his neighbors and had killed some of his thralls, 
or bondmen, found it necessary for him to flee from the 
wTath of the king, Harold Haarfager (Harold the Fair- 
haired), and he accordingly took his ships and went to Ice- 
land. Here he founded a colony which has lasted through 
all the centuries — a remarkable community. 

Though Iceland was thus settled by the Vikings, and al- 
though these sea-rovers still followed their wave-wandering 
life, we must believe that they were no longer like 



The Vikings in America 7 

'' pyrates " of the mainland. One of these sailors was 
Gunnbiorn, who, driven westward by a storm, soon after 
the settlement of Iceland, fell upon the shores of Green- 
land, to which region he gave the name of Gunnbiorn's 
Rocks. He made his way home again, for the strait be- 
tween Greenland and Iceland is not so wide but one may 
see the shores of each, when midway between them, of a 
clear day. He gave, like all discoverers, a very glowing ac- 
count of his new land, but none went thither until the next 
century. 

In 985, Eric the Red, who, like Ingolf, had been obliged 
to quit his own country on account of his violence and 
crimes, went to the new land in the West. He established 
a home for himself, and three years later, he was back in 
Iceland with a wonderful tale. In the quaint language of the 
chronicle, " In order to entice people to go to his new 
country, he called it Greenland, and painted it out as such 
an excellent place for pasture, wood, and fish, that the 
next year he was followed thither by twenty-five ships 
full of colonists, who had furnished themselves richly with 
household goods and cattle of all sorts; but only fourteen 
of these ships arrived." The other eleven, we are left to 
surmise, were wrecked on the way. 

Among those who followed Eric to Greenland was one 
Herjulf, a bold and skilful navigator. His son Bjarni, 
or Biarne, as he is most commonly called, was also an in- 
trepid sailor, and a worthy descendant of the Vikings. 
Returning from a voyage to Norway, Biarne found that 
his father had gone after Eric to the new land. This im- 
petuous youth, without more ado, and without stopping 
to unload his ship, immediately set sail into the West to 
find his father. He and his crew missed the southern 



8 Explorers and Settlers 

point of Greenland, and, after many days of fog and vio- 
lent wind, driven they knew not whither, they came in 
sight of land. The country was flat and well-wooded, 
but Biarne knew that it could not be Greenland. He 
looked in vain for ^' the high ice-hills," which he had been 
told to expect. Though his men grumbled mightily, he 
would not go ashore, but, sailing on the wind, as only the 
Northmen then knew how, he kept on with the land on 
the larboard (or left) side of the ship. After two days 
and two nights of voyaging, they approached land again. 
It was low and wooded; it was not Greenland. Keeping 
on his course, with a southwest wind, Biarne made land 
a third time. This was an island, as the young Viking- 
found by sailing around it, and it was '^ high and moun- 
tainous, with snowy mountains." Standing out to sea, 
with the southwest wind still blowing, Biarne sailed for 
three more days and nights, when he made the coast of 
Greenland. He found his father w^ell established at a point 
called Herjulfness, or Herjulf's Cape. 

Biarne was much blamed for his failure to explore the 
countries which he had seen. But he seems to have taken 
matters very coolly; and as it was more profitable for him 
to carry on his trading voyages with Norway, he made no 
use of his observations in the unknown Western sea. The 
sons of Earl Eric, however, burned with desire to explore 
the mysterious regions of which Biarne and his crew had 
brought such vague accounts. 

Accordingly, a family council having settled the details, 
Leif, the eldest son of Eric the Red, in looo, bought 
Biarne's ship, and fitted her for the cruise. Thirty-five 
men, among whom was Biarne, composed the crew, and 
Leif entreated his father to take the command. The old 



The Vikings in America 9 

Viking" reluctantly consented ; but, on the way to the point 
of departure, his horse stumbled and threw his rider. This 
was a bad omen to the superstitious Eric, who declared 
that it was ordained that he should discover no more new 
countries. He therefore gave up the command to Leif, 
who sailed prosperously into the West. 

Reversing the order of Biarne's voyage, Leif first found 
the land which Biarne had last seen. This region is now 




Leif's settlement. 



known as Newfoundland. Leif went on shore. From 
the sea to the inland mountains was a plain of flat stones. 
So he called it Helluland, from hclla, a flat stone. In 
like manner, when he came to the next land, which was a 
country covered with wood, he gave that the name of Mark- 
land, or Woodland. The name of that region is now 
Nova Scotia. The young Viking kept on with a north- 
east wind, and, in two days and two nights, made land a 



10 



Explorers and Settlers 



third time. This was undoubtedly on the coast of 
New England; precisely where, has never been satisfac- 
torily settled. Leif first landed on an island, where he 
waited for good weather. Then, coasting along the shore- 




■W^-^^^^e^ 




Northmen exploring the New England coast. 

line, he went up a river that came through a lake, says the 
chronicle. Here they cast anchor and made preparations 
to winter, for it was now autumn. 

It is generally conceded that this was the discovery by 
the Northmen of the coast of what is now Rhode Island, 
and that Leif built his booths, or houses, somewhere on 
the shore of Mount Hope Bay, or Narragansett Bay. The 
hardy Greenlanders thought this a favored and rich coun- 
try. Especially were they delighted when one Tyrker, a 
Southern foreigner of the company, discovered grapes 
growing wild in the woods, just as one may now see them 
ripening on the fir-covered and sandy hills of Cape Cod. 

This was a precious discovery to the Northmen. Never 
in Iceland, nor yet in Norway, had any of their ancestors 



The Vikings in America 



11 



found grapes. So, heaping up their deck and filling their 
long-boat with the dried fruit, they prepared to return to 
Greenland. In the spring they set sail, taking with them 
specimens of timber and a great store of the kinds of wood 
most prized in their own country, where trees were scarce. 
On his homeward voyage, Leif picked up a shipwrecked 
crew, which he kindly carried to shore. This, and his mar- 
velous adventures in the New World, gave him the title 
of Leif the Fortunate. It was not long before the news 
reached Europe. Vineland, as Leif called it, was known 
as Vinland the Good. By this name one historian, Adam 
of Bremen, heard of the land when he visited Sweden in 

I075- 

If the reports which the Northmen brought back to Eu- 
rope painted the world beyond the seas in too glowing col- 




^^^ 



A Viking ship under oars and sail. 

ors, we should remember that this has been the weakness 
of all explorers. The accounts of America afterward car- 
ried to Spain represented this to be a fairyland. One of 
those who followed Columbus actually searched for a foun- 



12 



Explorers and Settlers 



tain the waters of which would give eternal youth to those 
who drank tliereof. The hardy Vikings from Iceland and 
Greenland thought that New England was a land of almost 
unbroken summer. Considering what a cold and sterile 
region was their home, this is by no means surprising. 

During this time, Christianity had been slowly working 
its way from Northern Europe across the seas. The gods 
of the Northmen were many, but the chief of these was 
Woden, or Odin. His eldest son was Thor, the Thunderer, 
and his daughter, Freya, was the goddess of spring, flowers, 
music, and the gentle fairies. Woden has given his name 
to one of the days of the week, for Wednesday was for- 




The Viking ship. 

merly called Woden's-day. Thursday is also derived from 
Thor's-day, and Friday was Freya's-day. So, though the 
Vikings and their strange paganism have long since van- 
ished, these faint traces of their ancient faith survive. 



The Vikings in America 



13 




After Leif returned from his voyage to the New World, 
he went to Norway, where it is supposed he became con- 
verted to Christianity, Olaf being then king. At any rate, 
he carried some Christian priests to 
Greenland, much to the displeasure of 
Earl Eric, it was said. This was the 
first planting of the religion of Our 
Lord on this side of the Atlantic. 
Traces of the buildings of these early 
Greenland churches are still in exist- 
ence to vouch for the truth of the tale 
of the foundation of the Christian 
faith in America. 

Soon after this, Eric died, and Leif, 
now the head of the family, sailed the 
seas no more. His brother, Thor- 
vald, took up the enterprise, and, in 
1002, set sail in Leif's ship for Vinland the Good. He 
found the booths built by his brother and took possession 
of them, and there he spent the winter. In the following 
spring, he coasted far to the westward, and we conclude, 
from the description of the country which he saw, that 
he passed through the whole length of Long Island Sound. 
Possibly, he went as far as New York Bay, and there 
found '^ another lake through which a river flowed to 
the sea," of which he spoke. The party landed on many 
islands, and were enchanted with the groves of great trees, 
the green grass, and the abundance of vegetable growths 
which were so new and strange to them. 

The Northmen left no traces of their stay on the coast 
of New England. Their colonies were too short-lived. 
Their entire occupation was less than fifteen years. 



A Viking galley. 



14 Explorers and Settlers 

The Vikings have long since vanished from the sea. 
The tales of their prowess have become almost as vague 
as the story of Ulysses, or the history of the Trojan War. 
But even in the peaceful fleets which fleck the waters of 
the globe we find some traces of the seamanship for which 
they were so famed. They have left their names on many 
a stormy cape of the Northern seas, and the blood of their 
descendants flows in the veins of thousands of the hardy 
sons of America. 



Oh, who has not heard of the Northmen of yore, 
How flew, like the sea-bird, their sails from the shore ; 
How westward they stayed not till, breasting the brine. 
They hailed Narragansett, the land of the Vine? 

Arthur Cleveland Coxe. 




■^ 



FEW months ago I took a journey by sea. 
When the steamer had passed quite out of 
7--ss;t*— sight of land, a gentleman from 
Ohio remarked in rather a nervous way : 

" It seems to me as if I had left the whole 
world behind me." 

*' How," I asked, " would you feel if no 
one had ever crossed the Atlantic before?" 

He laughingly replied, " In that event, noth- 
ing could make me go on this voyage." 

When he had gone, I fell to thinking of the 
indomitable courage of the great Columbus, 
who first sailed over the sea from Europe to 
America, and of the honor all Americans 
ought to render to his memory. Surely he 
must have had visions of very beautiful lands 
to encourage him, or, so great were the diffi- 
culties he had to encounter, he would have 
given up in despair. 

15 




The boyhood 
home of 
Columbus 
in Genoa. 



i6 Explorers and Settlers 

The one idea of his life, which has rendered him the 
greatest discoverer in the annals of history, was that the 
Indies could be reached by sailing west from Europe. He 
was poor, and needed money to test the truth of his 
theory. He first had high hopes that his own coun- 
trymen, the Genoese, would aid him; but they took no 
interest in his scheme. He next applied to the Portu- 
guese, sustained by the belief that these pioneers in discov- 
ery would give him a favorable hearing. Again he was 
disappointed; and he now turned to Spain, arriving there 
in the year 1485. He met with some encouragement from 
the Spanish sovereigns ; and he spent five years in solicita- 
tion at their court, hoping all the time they would agree to 
relieve him of the financial difficulties that barred his way. 
But Ferdinand and Isabella were busy with their wars ; and 
finally, in 1490, they indefinitely postponed the matter. 
After this, there is evidence that Colum1)us laid his plans 
before several Spanish noblemen, but with no better suc- 
cess. 

He now decided to ask aid from the King of France, and 
he prepared to go to that country; but, at the advice of 
Friar Juan Perez, one of his most faithful friends, he re- 
solved once more to try the court of Spain. Juan Perez, 
who had acted as Queen Isabella's confessor, wrote to her 
indorsing the great navigator's idea. 

Columbus reached the Queen to make his last appeal at 
a time when of all others he might hope to find her in a 
gracious mood. It was in 1492, just after the Spaniards 
had captured Granada from the Aloors, and had planted 
their banners upon the red towers of its renowned fortress, 
the Alhambra. The noble Isabella had all the time been 



' The Voyage of Columbus 17 

really interested in Columbus's plan ; and, she now consented 
to help him. 

But even after he had been fitted out for his voyage un- 
der her patronage, his troubles were by no means at an 
end. The three ships that were furnished him, called the 
Santa Maria, the Pinfa, and the Nina, w^ere small, light 
craft, but poorly suited for a long and perilous journey. 
The sailors who manned them had been obtained with much 
difficulty. With few exceptions, they had little apprecia- 
tion of the greatness of the enterprise. 

When the expedition set sail from Palos, on the 3d of 
August, 1492, not a single spectator gave it a hearty " God- 
speed " ; but, on all sides, the gloomiest predictions were 
made as to the fate of the men who were going to venture 
out upon the Sea of Darkness, which was supposed to sur- 
round the known world. The minds of the sailors could 
not but be affected by the lack of faith in the enterprise they 
had seen stamped upon the faces of their friends; and so 
they were ready to magnify real dangers, and to let their 
minds run wild over imaginary ones. Christopher Colum- 
bus alone had to quiet their fears, answer their objections, 
and breathe into them some of his own courage; and this, 
too, when he himself sorely needed support. 

The route from Palos to the Canary Isles was not an un- 
known one; and this much of the distance was easily passed 
over. Here Columbus stopped till the 6th of September to 
repair the Pinta, whose rudder had been lost. Upon one 
of these islands is situated Mount Teneriffe, which was 
found to be in full eruption. As the sailors saw this, they 
shuddered and said : " This is an evil omen, and betokens 
a disastrous end to our voyage." But Columbus quieted 



i8 



Explorers and Settlers 



their superstitions. He explained the nature of volcanoes, 
and called to their minds Mount Etna, with which they were 
familiar. 




The first voyage of Columbus. 



But when they looked back over the course they had 
taken, and saw the last of the Canary Isles grow dim in the 
distant offing and then fade out of sight, tears trickled down 
their bronzed faces, as the thought came to them that their 
ships were now, indeed, plowing through trackless seas. 
But they took heart again as Columbus told them of the 
riches and magnificence of India, which he assured them 
lay directly to the west. 

So the voyage progressed without further incident worthy 
of remark till the 13th of September, when the magnetic 
needle, which was then believed always to point to the pole- 
star, stood some five degrees to the northwest. At this the 
pilots lost courage. " How," they thought, " was naviga- 
tion possible in seas where the compass, that unerring 
guide, had lost its virtue?" When they carried the mat- 



The Voyage of Columbus 19 

ter to Columbus, he at once gave them an explanation 
which, though not the correct one, was yet very ingenious, 
and shows the philosophic turn 'of his mind. The needle, 
he said, pointed not to the North Star, but to a fixed place 
in the heavens. The North Star had a motion around the 
pole, and in following its course had moved from the point 
to which the needle was always directed. 

Hardly had the alarm caused by the variation of the 
needle passed away, when two days later, after nightfall, 
the darkness that hung over the water was lighted up by a 
great meteor, which shot down from the sky into the sea. 
Signs in the heavens have always been a source of terror 
to the uneducated ; and this " flame of fire," as Columbus 
called it, rendered his men uneasy and apprehensive. Their 
vague fears were much increased when, on the i6th of Sep- 
tember, they reached the Sargasso Sea, in which floating 
weeds were so densely matted that they impeded the prog- 
ress of the ships. Whispered tales now passed from one 
sailor to another of legends they had heard of seas full of 
shoals and treacherous quicksands upon which ships had 
been found stranded with their sails flapping idly in the 
wind, and manned by skeleton crews. Columbus ever 
cheerful and even-tempered, answered these idle tales by 
sounding the ocean and showing that no bottom could be 
reached. 

As the ships were upon unknown seas, it was natural that 
every unusual circumstance should give the sailors alarm. 
Even the easterly trade- winds, in the region of which they 
had entered, and which were so favorable to their westward 
progress, occasioned the gravest fears. '' In these seas," 
they reasoned, '' the winds always blow from the east. 
How, then, can we ever go back to Spain? " But on Sep- 



20 Explorers and Settlers 

tember 22 the wind blew strongly from the west, which 
proved a return to Spain was not nnpossible. 

Still, the men thought they had gone far enough, and 
daily grew more impatient and distrustful of their com- 
mander, whom, after all, they knew only as a foreign ad- 
venturer whose ideas learned men had pronounced vision- 
ary. They formed a plan to throw Columbus into the sea. 
This done, they proposed, on their return to Spain, to say 
he had fallen overboard as he consulted his astronomical 
instruments. 

Columbus, whose keen eye saw signs of rising mutiny, 
took steps to meet it. The men who were timid he en- 
couraged with kind words. To the avaricious he spoke of 
the great wealth they would find in the new countries. 
Those who were openly rebellious he threatened with the 
severest punishment. Thus, by managing the men with 
tact, he kept them at their posts of duty till September 25, 
when, from certain favorable signs, every one grew hope- 
ful that land was near. The sea was now calm, and, as the 
ships sailed close together, w^afted westward by gentle 
breezes, Martin Pinzon, who commanded the Pinta, cried 
out, *' Land, land!" and forthwith began to cliant the 
" Gloria in Excelsis." But he had been deceived by a ridge 
of low-lying cloud. For a week following, from many 
favorable indications, all on board were confident that as 
each day drew to a close, land would be discovered on the 
next — and with each morning came bitter disappointment. 
This state of feeling continued till October 7, when, as the 
Nina, the smallest of the vessels, was breasting the waves 
ahead of the others, she suddenly hoisted a flag and, as a 
signal that land had been sighted, fired a gun, the first ever 



The Voyage of Columbus 21 

heard upon those silent waters. But the ships sailed on, 
and no land came in view. 

The high hopes of the sailors now left them. The 
golden countries promised them seemed to recede as they 
approached. They became firmly resolved that they would 
give up the search after phantom lands and return to their 
homes. Columbus had exhausted his powers of persuasion. 
He now boldly announced that he would continue his voy- 
age to the Indies in spite of all dangers. Doubtless he 
knew he could not much longer control his turbulent, hot- 
tempered followers. But the nth of October, the day after 
he had come to an open rupture with them, brought unmis- 
takable signs that land was near — such indications as 
fresh weeds that grow near running water, fish that were 
known to live about rocks, a limb of a tree with berries 
on it, and a carved staff. Every eye eagerly scanned the 
horizon. Night came on, however, and land had not been 
discovered ; but the eager men were too happy to close their 
eyes in sleep. About ten o'clock, Columbus saw a light in 
the distance which moved to and fro in the darkness ; and, 
shortly after midnight, a sailor on the Pinfa made the wel- 
come announcement that land could be seen. The ships 
now took in sail, and waited for the morning. As the 12th 
of October dawned, and the light of the rising sun dispelled 
the soft morning mists, Columbus's patience and unflagging 
zeal had their reward. He could plainly see land; and he 
tells us it looked *' like a garden full of trees." It was an 
island belonging to what is now the Bahama group. 

The ships soon cast anchor ; and the boats were let down 
and rowed rapidly to a landing-place on the coast. Colum- 
bus, richly dressed and wearing complete armor, sprang 



22 Explorers and Settlers 

upon the shore, bearing aloft the colors of Spain. He was 
closely followed by the captains of the Pinta and the Nina 
and a number of sailors, each captain carrying a banner 
upon which were wrought a green cross and the initials of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. They all, as soon as their feet 
touched the land, '' fell upon their knees," and offered up 
their '' immense thanksgivings to Almighty God." 

When Columbus arose he planted the flag of Spain firmly 
in the soil. Who can properly appreciate the feelings that 
must have stirred his soul at this moment ! 

No wonder that Columbus was radiant with joy as he 
looked around him. No wonder that he wrote in his jour- 
nal : "The beauty of the new land far surpasses the 
Campina de Cordova. The trees are bright with an ever 
verdant foliage, and are always laden with fruit. The 
plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air is 
warm as that of April in Castile." 

No wonder that he said : '' I felt as if I could never leave 
so charming a spot, as if a thousand tongues would fail to 
describe all these things, and as if my hand were spellbound 
and refused to write." 

Joy filled his heart; for he regarded himself as under 
the special guidance of God. Truly he had cause for thank- 
fulness. Heaven had given him a high and noble purpose 
and had granted him its fulfilment. He had reached the 
land that lay west of Europe, and which he believed to be 
a remote part of Asia; but he had really found America. 
By his hand the veil of obscurity had been lifted from the 
New World, and soon it became known to civilized man in 
all its matchless beauty. 




HOW COLUMBUS RECKONED 
By Royall Bascom Smithey 

During the fifteenth century, the Portuguese won great 
glory by their boldness and enterprise as sailors, and by the 
zeal they showed in the cause of discovery. So great had 
been their success in making explorations that they were led 
to hope they could find a new route by sea to India, which 
they believed would bring a golden tide of prosperity to 
their country. 

There was much to encourage them to prosecute this en- 
terprise. The trade with the East Indies had long been 
monopolized by the Italians. To it the republics of Venice 
and Genoa owed their great wealth and influence. It was 
a trade that had enriched all parts of Europe it had touched. 
It came into Europe by way of the Red Sea and the Medi- 
terranean. The Portuguese were far removed from its 
course. But they believed if they could find a new route 
to India they would be able to turn this trade from the 
channels in which it had flowed for centuries, and bring it to 
Portugal, 

23 



24 -Explorers and Settlers 

The plan by which they sought to attain their object was 
to sail south till they had gone round Africa, and then to 
turn east and reach Asia. In 1470 when Columbus came 
to Lisbon this project filled the public mind. He came as 
a stranger, with no particular mark of distinction. He 
was only one of many bold navigators who were anxious to 
venture out into unknown seas. Why, then, did the honor 
of discovering America fall to him? What enabled him 
to reckon so wisely that the wonders of the New World 
first became known through him? 

This question is full of interest. We find an answer to 
it partly in the character of Columbus and partly in the cir- 
cumstances that surrounded him. 

The mind of Columbus was strong and reflective. He 
knew well how to sift evidence and to give due weight to 
every incident that came under his notice. He was en- 
dowed, too, with a rich imagination, which furnished him 
with many valuable theories upon which to work. In addi- 
tion to all this, he was enthusiastic, and ambitious to dis- 
tinguish himself. Altogether he was unusually well quali- 
fied by nature to originate a bold plan for a voyage of ex- 
ploration. 

He came to Lisbon, too, at a time when the very air was 
full of speculations as to lands beyond the great Atlantic 
Ocean. 

It seems probable that Columbus first reached the con- 
clusion that land lay west of Europe shortly after his mar- 
riage to Donna Felipa, the daughter of Palestrello. This 
union was a happy one for him, for it brought him into as- 
sociations that stimulated his ambition as a navigator ; and 
to it perhaps in no small measure his success was due. His 
wife was the daughter of one of the most distinguished cap- 



How Columbus Reckoned 25 

tains who had served under Prince Henry of Portugal. 
He had discovered the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, 
and had settled colonies upon them. At his death, which 
occurred before Columbus married his daughter, he left a 
large number of notes, maps, and manuscripts. These came 
into the hands of Columbus, who carefully studied them, 
and found out from them the routes the Portuguese had 
followed in their voyages, and the plans they had adopted 
in searching for the route to India. 

Columbus soon formed the opinion that Asia might be 
reached by a more direct way than the one the Portuguese 
were trying to follow, that is, by sailing directly west across 
the Atlantic. He^ was not content to hold this opinion as 
a mere theory, as some learned men before him had done; 
but, on every side, he sought evidence to confirm it. 

It is interesting at the present day to follow, as well as 
we can, the growth of this idea in the mind of Columbus 
from the time he first entertained it till it became so firmly 
fixed in his thoughts that the desire of his life was to test 
its truth. We will accordingly take a brief glance at some 
of the evidence to which he trusted. 

We find he believed the earth was a globe, and he was 
acquainted with the calculations that had been made in re- 
gard to its magnitude. The estimates made of its size dif- 
fered considerably. Columbus adopted one that made the 
earth much smaller than it really is. But even upon his 
view of the earth's surface Europe, Asia, and Africa as far 
as known, formed only a small part of it. 

What, then, lay beyond the Atlantic? Was there no 
opposite shore ? Columbus believed the ocean was hemmed 
in by land. The theory that the earth was spherical was 
sufficient to suggest this idea to him. His knowledge of 



26 Explorers and Settlers 

geography made him think the land on the other side would 
belong to Asia. 

He looked into the evidence which had come from an- 
cient times to support the opinion that land could be found 
west of Europe. It was a known fact that the Carthagini- 
ans had ventured a little way out in the Atlantic. They 
had discovered the Canary Isles, and perhaps also the Ma- 
deira Islands and the Azores. 

In the writings of the ancient poets, Columbus found 
hints of islands in the Atlantic, some of which were sup- 
posed to be places where peace, happiness, and rest from 
the troubles of life could be found. 

Tradition said, however, that there was great danger in 
trying to navigate the oceans beyond the Straits of Gi- 
braltar. The columns of rock which guarded the entrance 
to the Straits were called the Pillars of Hercules. Beyond 
these men were afraid to venture, because, according to a 
legend, there once had been a great island in the Atlantic 
opposite the Pillars. Plato described it and named it At- 
lantis. During an earthquake, it had sunk ; and its surface 
made great sandbanks just beneath the water, upon which 
all ships which dared go beyond the Pillars were stranded. 
There is reason to believe that Columbus had heard all these 
tales. 

The Portuguese navigators, before Columbus came among 
them, had lost some of the fear of the great ocean which 
had made sailors in ancient times keep so close to the shore. 
Trusting to the guidance of the mariner's compass, which 
had come into use, they had visited the Madeiras and the 
Azores. Occasionally, too, a wandering bark, driven from 
its course by a storm, brought back tales of strange islands 
dimly sighted in the distance. 



How Columbus Reckoned 27 

In this way accounts came of an island that had been 
seen some leagues west of the Canaries. It was even put 
down upon maps. It was called St. Brandan, because 
there was a story that an Irish abbot of that name had dis- 
covered it in the sixth century. 

Then, right in the middle of the Atlantic, it was believed 
that Antillia was situated. Tradition said that when Spain 
and Portugal were overrun by the Moors, seven bishops 
with a large number of their people took ship and commit- 
ted themselves to the unknown sea. Finally they reached 
an island upon which they built seven cities. From this 
circumstance, the island was also called the Isle of Seven 
Cities. 

When Columbus came to Portugal, a tale was in circula- 
tion of several sailors who had gone to Prince Henry with 
the statement that they had visited this island. They re- 
ported that the inhabitants spoke the language of Spain, and 
had eagerly asked if 'the Moors still had possession of their 
native land. 

The very sands of the coast of this island were, the sailors 
said, one third gold. 

St. Brandan, Antillia, and many other islands about 
which tales were told, had no real existence, as was after- 
ward found out. 

Columbus did not pay very much attention to the myths 
that had come down from ancient times, nor to those that 
were circulated in his day. They were of value to him only 
because they showed that from a very early period in the 
world's history the opinion had been held that the Atlantic 
was not simply a waste of waters with no western shore. 

But his belief in the existence of western lands was 
greatly strengthened by evidence the waves themselves gave 



28 Explorers and Settlers 

in bringing driftwood and other strange objects to the 
shores of Europe. This evidence he eagerly collected from 
sailors who returned from long voyages, and from the in- 
habitants of the Atlantic islands. 

His brother-in-law, Pedro Correa, had himself seen some- 
thing which bore significant testimony. He had picked up 
upon the coast of the Island of Madeira a fragment of wood 
that showed signs of having come from a strange country. 
It was carved in a most singular manner; and it was evi- 
dent, too, that no instrument of iron had been used to 
fashion it. 

A pilot, Martin Vincent, courageously sailed further 
westward than others had done. Before his return, he had 
seen floating upon the waves a similar piece of wood, which 
was driven to him by a strong western wind. 

The inhabitants of the Azores stated that pine-trees, un- 
like any they had seen, had been cast upon their shores when 
the wind blew from the west. From the same direction 
great reeds also, like those which were known to grow in 
the East Indies, had come to their islands. 

But the most remarkable incident of all was the fact 
that the bodies of two men had been brought by the waves 
to the island of Flores. The men had strange features, 
and were in appearance altogether unlike any men known in 
Europe. 

Such indications as these had much influence upon the 
thoughtful mind of Columbus. He became convinced that 
west of Europe there was an undiscovered country, which 
he thought would prove to be the eastern part of Asia. But 
how far was it? Was the Atlantic Ocean so vast that 
ships could not sail across it to the land on the other side? 

In settling this question Columbus depended to a great 



How Columbus Reckoned 



29 



extent upon the testimony of two famous travelers, who had 
gone through parts of Asia. These were Marco Polo, a 
Venetian, who lived during parts of the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries, and Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman, 
who lived in the fourteenth century. 

Marco Polo traveled through the principal countries of 
eastern Asia, and visited their chief cities. He wrote the 




Portion of Toscanelli's Map. 

copied by permissiofl of Messrs. Houghton, Wiffiio i Co., from Juslin Wlnsor's "Narrative and Ciili.ul History of Ameri.a." 

most extravagant descriptions of the countries he had seen. 
He represented them as abounding in gold, silver, precious 
stones, and costly merchandise. As to the extent of the 
country, this was, according to Marco Polo, enormous. His 
descriptions produced upon Columbus the impression that 
the eastern part of Asia stretched far beyond its real posi- 
tion out into the Atlantic toward the western coast of Eu- 
rope. The opinion Columbus formed from reading Marco 
Polo as to the great extent of Asia was confirmed by the 
writings of Mandeville. 

But, in addition to the main continent, Marco Polo de- 
scribed a great island which he called Zipangu. This, he 



30 Explorers and Settlers 

said, had a magnificence far exceeding that of any other 
country he visited. The palace of the king was covered 
with plates of pure gold; and the halls and rooms were lined 
with the same precious metal, while the island itself was 
full of riches of all kinds. 

Now, when we remember Columbus had adopted calcu- 
lations of the earth's surface which made it' much smaller 
than it really is, and trusted to evidence which greatly mag- 
nified the size of Asia, we see how he naturally reached 
the conclusion that it would not be a very difficult thing 
to sail across from Europe to Asia. He was confirmed in 
this view by Toscanelli, a learned Italian, whom he con- 
sulted, and who sent him a map based partly upon evidence 
derived from Marco Polo. This map represented the coast 
of Asia as opposite Europe, with the great island Zipangu 
between the two countries. 

Columbus was so certain of the correctness of the theory 
he had formed from all the evidence he had collected that 
when he started on his voyage he confidently expected to 
find Zipangu first, and then to go on to the coast of Asia. 
He did not find Zipangu ; but he found an island belonging 
to a new w^orld which lay between Europe and Asia. 




A NEW WORLD 

FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY COLUMBUS IN MARCH, I493, 
'' TO THE NOBLE LORD RAPHAEL SANCHEZ, TREASURER TO 
THEIR MOST INVINCIBLE MAJESTIES, FERDINAND AND ISA- 
BELLA, KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN." 

Knowing that it will afford you pleasure to learn that I 
have brought my undertaking to a successful termination, 
I have decided upon writing you this letter to acquaint you 
with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, and 
the discoveries which have resulted from it. Thirty-three 
days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian 
sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of 
which I took possession without resistance in the name of 
our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and 
with unfurled banners. To the first of these islands, which 
is called by the Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the 
blessed Saviour (San Salvador), relying upon whose protec- 
tion I had reached this as well as the other islands. . . . 
In the meantime I had learned from some Indians whom I 
had seized, that that country was certainly an island : and 
therefore I sailed towards the east, coasting to the distance 
of three hundred and twenty-two miles, which brought us 
to the extremity of it. . . . All these islands are very 
beautiful, and distinguished by a diversity of scenery; they 
are filled with a great variety of trees of immense height, 
and which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons; 
for when I saw them they were as verdant and luxuriant 

31 



32 Explorers and Settlers 

as they usually are in Spain in the month of May, — some of 
them were blossoming, some bearing fruit, and all flourish- 
ing in the greatest perfection, according to their respective 
stages of growth, and the nature and quality of each : yet the 
islands are not so thickly wooded as to be impassable. The 
nightingale and various birds were singing in countless 
numbers, and that in November, the month in which I ar- 
rived there. . . . The inliabitants . . . are very 
simple and honest, and exceedingly lil^eral with all they 
have; none of them refusing anything he may possess when 
he is asked for it, l)ut on the contrary inviting us to ask 
them. They exhibit great love towards all others in pref- 
erence to themselves : they also give objects of great value 
for trifles, and content tliemselves with very little or nothing 
in return. I however forbade that these trifles and articles 
of no value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, 
keys, and leather straps) should be given to them, although 
if they could obtain them, they imagined themselves to be 
possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world. It 
even happened that a sailor received for a leather strap as 
much gold as was worth three golden nobles, and for things 
of more trifling value offered by our men, especially newly- 
coined blancas, or any gold coins, the Indians would give 
whatever the seller required. . . . On my arrival at 
that sea, I had taken some Indians by force from the first 
island that I came to, in order that they might learn our 
language. . . . These men are still traveling with me, 
and although they have been with us now a long time, they 
continue to entertain the idea that I have descended from 
heaven ; and on our arrival at any new place they pub- 
lished this, crying out immediately with a loud voice to the 
other Indians, '' Come, come and look upon beings of a 



A New World 33 

celestial race " : upon which both women and men, children 
and adults, young men and old, when they got rid of the 
fear they at first entertained, would come out in throngs, 
crowding the roads to see us, some bringing food, others 
drink, with astonishing affection and kindness. . . . 
Although all I have related may appear to be wonderful 
and unheard of, yet the results of my voyage would have 
been more astonishing if I had had at my disposal such 
ships as I required. But these great and marvelous results 
are not to be attributed to any merit of mine, but to the 
holy Christian faith, and to the piety and religion of our 
Sovereigns; for that which the unaided intellect of man 
could not compass, the spirit of God has granted to human 
exertions, for God is wont to hear the prayers of his serv- 
ants who love his precepts even to the performance of ap- 
parent impossibilities. Thus it has happened to me in the 
present instance, who have accomplished a task to which 
the powers of mortal men had never hitherto attained; for 
if there have been those wdio have anywhere written or 
spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and 
conjectures, and no one has ever asserted that he has seen 
them, on which account their writings have been looked 
upon as little else than fables. Therefore let the king and 
queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all 
the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great 
a victory and such prosperity. . . . Farewell. 

Christopher Columbus, 
Admiral of the Fleet of the Ocean. 
Select Letters of Christopher Columhus (Hakluyt Society, 
London, 1847). 



THE EARTHLY PARADISE IN AMERICA 

FROM THE NARRATIVE OF COLUMBUS 

I have already described my ideas concerning this hemi- 
sphere and its form; and I have no doubt that if I could pass 
below the equinoctial line, after reaching the highest point 
of which I have spoken, I should find a much milder tem- 
perature, and a variation in the stars and in the water; not 
that I suppose that elevated point to be navigable, nor even 
that there is water there : indeed, I believe it is impossible to 
ascend thither, because I am convinced that it is the spot 
of the earthly paradise, whither no one can go but by God's 
permission. 

I do not suppose that the earthly paradise is in the 
form of a rugged mountain, as the descriptions of it 
have made it appear, but that it is on the summit of the 
spot which I have described as being in the form of the stalk 
of a pear. The approach to it from a distance must be by 
a constant and gradual ascent ; but I believe, that, as I have 
already said, no one could ever reach the top. . 
There are great indications of this being the terrestrial 
paradise; for its site coincides with the opinion of the holy 
and wise theologians whom I have mentioned. And, more- 
over, the other evidences agree with the supposition; for I 
have never either read or heard of fresh water coming in so 
large a quantity, in close conjunction with the water of the 
sea. The idea is also corroborated by the blandness of the 
temperature. 

34 



HOW PEPPER HELPED TO DISCOVER AMERICA 
By Klyda Richardson Steege 

How would you like a pie not only sweetened and spiced 
but made hot with a sprinkling of pepper? or a cake full of 
fruit and also strongly peppered ? I rather think you would 
call these things spoiled, and beg to have them made in a 
different way. If, however, we had lived some four or 
five hundred years ago, we should have thought, like every 
one else in those days, that no dish, sweet or otherwise, was 
complete without the pungent taste of pepper. No doubt it 
is as well for our digestion that we in these times like our 
food prepared in simpler fashion. 

Perhaps it would surprise you to know that this taste 
for pepper, and the value which was once placed upon it, 
played an important part in the discovery of America. In 
case this last statement seems improbable, let me tell you 
something of the history of pepper, and its importance in 
the commerce of the world during the Middle Ages. There 
are a great many common things, you know, that have very 
interesting stories belonging to them, and they are gener- 
ally worth hearing. 

The native country of the pepper-plant is southern India, 
and its culture there is very old. The berry, or peppercorn, 
which is ground for our use, is produced on vines which 
are trained against trees, very much as you may see the 
grape-vines in an Italian vineyard. The berries are dried 
in the sun and sent to market in bags. Black and white 

35 



36 



Explorers and Settlers 



pepper are made from the same berries, but the black con- 
tains the ground husk, which the other does not. This ad- 
dition of the husk gives the darker color and stronger flavor 
to black pepper. 

The old Eastern nations, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and 
the Romans all knew and used a great many spices, and 
among them was always pepper. How soon it came to be 
so highly esteemed as it was in the Middle Ages is not cer- 
tain; but as early as 410, when the great Northern con- 
queror, Alaric the Visigoth, besieged Rome, and was in- 
duced to retire by taking a ransom, three thousand pounds 
of pepper formed part of the treasure he carried away with 
him. 

Later on, taxes began to be paid in pepper instead of 
money, and the Jews, especially, who dealt largely in this, 
among other spices, were obliged, in many cases, to give 




Early Fifteenth Century Map of the World. 



How Pepper Helped Discover America 37 

to the government so many pounds of it yearly. In the 
twelfth century, according to an old law, the Jews paid to 
the Pope a tribute of one pound of pepper and two pounds 
of cinnamon. From certain Provengal villages the arch- 
bishop received annually from one-half to two pounds of 
pepper, in payment for allowing the Jews to have a copy 
of the book of their law, a synagogue, a lamp burning per- 
petually, and a cemetery. In 1385 the King of Provence 
imposed on the Jews in his dominions a tax of sixty pounds 
of pepper. 

So much traffic in this spice came to the city of Alexan- 
dria that one of its streets and a gate were named for it; 
and as for Venice, an Italian proverb said, '' // nero e il 
bianco hanno fatto ricca Venczia," which means, " The 
white and the black have made Venice rich." In other 
words, it was through the pepper and the cotton, brought 
from the East by the ships of Venice, and by her merchants 
sent all over Europe, that the city gained a large share of 
its vast wealth. In the fifteenth century pepper was the 
article, more than any other, that the Venetians sent to 
France, Flanders, England, and, above all, to Germany. 

People used to make presents of pepper. Even kings 
and ambassadors gave and received it. When the republic 
of Venice wished to show special gratitude to the Emperor 
Henry V, they made him an annual gift of fifty pounds of 
it. After a victory gained by the people of Genoa in iioi, 
each soldier received as part of his pay two pounds of pep- 
per. 

In many countries there prevailed a curious system which 
obliged certain persons to furnish, at stated times, pepper 
in small quantities, in most cases about one pound. These 
payments were called '' peppercorn rents," and the term has 



38 Explorers and Settlers 

not entirely died out yet. In England the tax on pepper in 
1623 was five shillings a pound, and even until the eighteenth 
century it amounted to two shillings and sixpence per 
pound. 

You can easily imagine what a high price people had to 
pay for an article so much in demand, and what an enor- 
mous amount of it must have been used. I said that they 
put it even in sweet dishes, and, in fact, the rage for pep- 
pered food was so great that it was considered absolutely es- 
sential in every sauce. People would not have said then, 
*' I have n't enough salt in my soup " or " on my meat," or 
" enough sugar in my pudding," but, " There is n't enough 
pepper." 

You must imagine yourself in the Middle Ages, and 
think of all the difficulties then connected with carrying on 
business. When our merchants want anything, there are 
swift ships and fast trains everywhere; all countries are 
open, and we can telegraph from one end of the earth to the 
other. The products of India and Africa are at our very 
doors, and we have only to ask to obtain them. But it 
has not always been so, and we ought to remember the 
long voyages taken, the weary searching made, the dan- 
gers from wild beasts and savage peoples encountered, 
before we, in our time, could obtain so comfortably and 
easily w^hat seem to us Only ordinary necessities. 

Four and five hundred years ago there was, it is true, 
a great amount of luxury in France and Italy. People 
wore beautiful clothing, magnificent jewels, and ate choice 
food ; art flourished, and science made great progress. But 
at what a cost were even the necessaries of living obtained! 
From the Far East to Europe, how long the journey was, 
and what months were consumed in bringing, over the 



How Pepper Helped Discover America 39 



deserts of Arabia, across the plains and mountains of Per- 
sia, under the burning sun of India, or in boats from 
Syrian and Turkish ports, the things which European civ- 
ilization required. When we remember the difficulties of 
the medieval merchants, we can understand one of the 
principal motives which led so many persons to search for 
new and shorter routes to the countries where the spices 
grew, and where the land was rich in products which would 
bring them wealth. It was the love of adventure and the 
desire to see new and strange places which started large 
numbers of the early voyagers, but it was, more than all, 
for commercial reasons that most of the expeditions were 
undertaken. 

In the year 1260 there passed through Constantinople 
two Venetians, named Maffeo and Niccolo Polo. They 
were on their way, as a matter of 
speculation, toward the East, and, 
by various chances and changes, 
went on until they reached Bokhara 
in Turkestan, where they felt a long 
way from home, and thought they 
had made a great journey. But 
here they fell in with certain envoys 
on a mission to Cathay, or China, 
and bound to the court of the great 
monarch Kublai Khan. The two 
brothers were induced to accompany 
them, and thus became, as far as we know, the first Euro- 
pean travelers to reach China. There is no time to tell of 
how they found Kublai Khan at a place called Cambaluc 
(the old name of Peking), just rebuilt by him, or of his 
beautiful country-seat at Shangtu, north of the Great Wall. 




Arms of the Toscanelli 
Family. 



4-0 Explorers and Settlers 

But some day, when you read those Hues which Coleridge 
left unfinished, and wdiich begin, — 

At Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure dome decree, 

you might remember the visit the two Venetians paid the 
place. 

The Chinese monarch was delighted to meet these in- 
telligent men from the distant and civilized West, and when 
they went home he made them his messengers to the Pope, 
begging them to return with teachers and missionaries from 
Europe. After a long time they did reach China again, 
having visited home in the meanwhile, and although they 
had not succeeded in having the teachers sent, they brought 
with them Niccolo's son Marco, then fifteen years old, 
who became the famous traveler and the first European 
explorer to write a book about what he had seen. 

When you read his book, you will notice how often he 
speaks of the spices of the Eastern countries, and how he 
mentions pepper as one of the most important articles of 
commerce in those lands. The Chinese, at that time, valued 
pepper so much that they willingly paid fifteen ducats for a 
bushel, and Marco Polo says that for one ship which left 
India with a cargo of pepper to be sent on to Alexandria, 
a hundred or more went to China. 

Marco Polo's book made a great impression on his fel- 
low-countrymen, and the interest already felt in the un- 
explored East was largely increased by reading his stories. 
One traveler after another sailed from the different ports 
bf Italy, and made voyages, more or less successful, in 
various directions. As at this time the principal traffic of 
Europe came through Venice, the Venetians were the first 



How Pepper Helped Discover America 41 

to interest themselves in expeditions to distant countries. 
Every year a Venetian squadron passed through the Straits 
of Gibraltar, and stopped at Lisbon on the way to Eng- 
land and Flanders. The sailors told stories of the Eastern 
countries with which their city carried on commerce, and 
the Portuguese and Spaniards were the next to catch the 
exploring fever, and began to make voyages of explora- 
tion for themselves. They went down the west coast of 
Africa, making their own one bit of territory after an- 
other, until, as you know, Vasco da Gama sailed quite 
around the Cape of Good Hope, and showed that path to 
India. 

Prince Henry of Portugal, himself a navigator, was 
largely responsible for these African discoveries, and he 
was influenced by Marco Polo's book to attempt his own 
expeditions and encourage those of others. 

Here in Portugal pepper was again of importance, for 
it is said that the desire to find it by an easy and cheap 
route, and thus to reduce its price, was one of the reasons 
why the Portuguese were so anxious to get to India by 
sea. Its price was certainly lowered after the merchants 
began to bring it directly from India and Ceylon in ships ; 
and it became a monopoly of the Portuguese crown, con- 
tinuing so until the eighteenth century. About this time 
the culture of pepper was extended to the Malay Archipelago, 
and part of the traffic was turned naturally from Italy to 
Portugal, as being in more direct communication. 

Now let us go back a little, and this time to Florence, 
one of the greatest commercial cities of the past, par- 
ticularly during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
Her merchants were of the richest in the world, and cer- 
tain trades and arts flourished there as nowhere else. 



42 Explorers and Settlers 

Among these merchant famihes was one called Tos- 
canelli, and they carried on business in '' spices " and in the 
other articles usually coming under that head in those days. 
They sent in every direction for their goods, and every 
year visited the old Italian town called Lanciano, where 
was held the great fair of spices, and where merchants 
came to buy and sell from all countries of Europe, and 
even from Asia. Here one would be sure to find many 
travelers, and to hear many stories of strange lands and 
little known peoples, and here, no doubt, great impetus 
was given to research in new directions. 

The Toscanelli family were rich, and owned a great 
deal of property in Florence, and a street in the city still 
bears their name. There is, too, a fine old villa, not far 
away, which belonged to them nearly five hundred years 
ago. But they are remembered especially for one famous 
representative of their name, and he was a man whom 
Americans should hold in great regard. Well known and 
esteemed in his own day, Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli has 
almost been forgotten since by the world in general, until 
comparatively recent times. However, in 187 1, at the 
meeting in Antwerp of the Geographical Congress, all the 
scholars, historians, and scientists present unanimously 
agreed in calling him the inspirer of the discovery of 
America. He died in 1482, ten years before Columbus 
touched the shores of the New World; but it was by the 
chart he drew, and according to his plans, that the great 
Genoese laid his course. 

Toscanelli lived out the whole of his long life in Italy, 
a hard student, a skilful physician, and a remarkable scien- 
tist. He was the founder of modern astronomy, and was 
the first to mention some of the comets best known to later 



How Pepper Helped Discover America 43 

astronomers. His knowledge of mathematics was pro- 
found, and his interest in geographical researches intense. 
There is still, in the Cathedral of Florence, the gnomon, 
or sun-dial, he made, and it has been considered the most 
perfect in existence. 

On the death of his brother, he took the place almost 
of a father to his nephews, and, as they carried on the 
business, he interested himself largely in their success. It 
was for their sake that, aside from his scientific interest in 
the voyages of the day, he began to think and plan new 
routes and ways to the country of the spices. The Turks 
were interfering with the introduction into Venice, and thus 
into Italy, of the products of India, and merchants of 
Florence were beginning to feel the effect of this obstacle 
to commerce, when Toscanelli declared it possible to reach 
the East by sailing west. On the chart which he made 
he traced a line from Lisbon, across the sea to Ouin-sai 
(Han-chau), on the Chinese coast; and in a letter which he 
wrote on June 25, 1474, to his friend Christopher Colum- 
bus, he explained his ideas and theories regarding the voy- 
age. 

At the same time that Toscanelli sent this letter to Co- 
lumbus (who was then at Lisbon), he also wrote to another 
person a letter to be given to the King of Portugal. In 
this letter, among other things, he said : 

" Many other times I have reasoned concerning the very 
short route which there is by way of the sea from here 
to India, — the native land of the spices, — and which I 
hold to be shorter than that which you take by Guinea. 
For greater clearness of explanation, I have made a chart 
such as is used by navigators, on which is traced this route, 
and I send it to your Majesty. ... I have depicted 



44 Explorers and Settlers 

everything from Ireland at the north as far south as Guinea, 
with the islands and countries, and I will show how you 
may reach the places most productive of all sorts of spices. 
Also I have shown in this chart many countries in the 
neighborhood of India, where, if no contrary winds or 
misadventures arise, you will find islands where all the 
inhabitants are merchants. Especially is there a most no- 
ble port, called Zaitou, where they load and unload every 
year a hundred great ships with pepper, and there are 
also other ships, laden with other spices. This place is 
thickly populated, and there are cities and provinces with- 
out number, under the rule of a prince, called the Great 
Khan, which name means ' King of Kings.' . . . Here 
you will find not only very great gain and many rich things, 
but also gold and silver and precious stones, and all sorts 
of spices in great abundance. . . . From the city of 
Lisbon you may sail directly to the great and noble city 
of Quin-sai, where are ten bridges of marble, and the 
name of the place signifies ' City of Heaven.' Of it are 
told most marvelous things of its buildings, of its manu- 
factures, and of its revenues. This city lies near the prov- 
ince of Cathay, where the king spends the greater part of 
his time. . . . You have heard of the island of An- 
tillia, which you call the Seven Cities, and of the most 
noble island of Cipango, which is rich in gold, pearls, and 
precious stones, and the temples and royal palaces are cov- 
ered with plates of gold. . . . Many other things could 
be said, but I will not be too long. . . . And so I re- 
main always most ready to serve your Majesty in whatever 
you may command me." 

With such ideas as these in his mind, you know why 
Columbus thought he was landing in the Orient when he 



How Pepper Helped Discover America 45 

stepped ashore on the island of San Salvador. He had 
even brought with him a letter and fitting gifts for the 
Great Khan, or Emperor of Cathay. 

To-day pepper grows in many countries besides those 
of the East, though the best still comes from India, and 
a great deal of business is carried on in its cultivation, 
preparation, and exportation. It has become an ordinary 
thing to us, and we expect it on the table as a matter of 
course. Perhaps, however, when you remember its old 
importance, and that the trade in this spice really did help 
to lead voyagers toward America, you will regard it as 
something much more interesting than a mere every-day 
addition to your food. 



Then first Columbus, with the mighty hand 
Of grasping genius, weigh'd the sea and land; 
The floods o'erbalanced : — where the tide of light. 
Day after day, roll'd down the gulf of night, 
There seemed one waste of waters : — long in vain 
His spirit brooded o'er the Atlantic main : 
When sudden, as creation burst from nought, 
Sprang a new world through his stupendous thought, 
Light, order, beauty ! . . . 

James Montgomery. 



A VOYAGE TO VIRGINIA 

Selections from Hakluyt's " Voyages " by Florence 
Watters Snedeker 



In the days of Queen Bess lived Richard Hakluyt, to 
whom England was " more indebted for its American pos- 
sessions than to any man of that age." 

Not that he was statesman, soldier, or even sailor. He 
was a preacher. He never saw the marvelous New World. 
But it was the passion of his life. He incited merchants and 
noblemen to expeditions and " plantings." He knew the 
'' chiefest captains . . . and best mariners " of Eng- 





" He beckoned us to come and sit by him.' 
46 



A Voyage to Virginia 47 

land, " and he published their reports, together with many 
other narratives, letters, translations, and treatises, in the 
great volume of his Voyages." 

The voyages were written by mariners and captains, mer- 
chants and gentlemen, mechanics and knights. They tell 
of expeditions undertaken for greed of gold, for thirst of 
adventure, for hatred of Spain, for love of England, for 
the glory of God. They give pictures of those wonderful 
times, from Queen Elizabeth waving Frobisher farewell, 
to poor Job Hortop, gunner, sitting down in his old age 
to write the woeful tale of his labors and troubles. 

Hakluyt's '' Voyages " have been called '' the great prose 
epic of the English nation." Charles Kingley's '' West- 
ward Ho ! " is largely drawn from them, and may well be 
read in connection with them for understanding of the 
times. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, brilliant courtier and soldier as he 
was, was mariner as well. The New World filled his im- 
agination, and seemed to promise him adventure, gold, and 
fame. He sent thither various expeditions. With several 
he went in person, notably in the romantic search for the 
land of gold. 

His first expedition was sent in 1584 — two barks under 
Philip Armadas and Arthur Barlow. One of these cap- 
tains sent to Sir Walter the following glowing account of 
the voyage. 

VIRGINIA. 

The twenty-seventh day of April, 1584, we departed the 
west of England, with two barks well furnished with men 
and victuals. 

The tenth of May we arrived at the Canaries, and the 



48 Explorers and Settlers 

tenth of June we were fallen in with the islands of the 
West Indies. At which islands we found the air unwhole- 
some, and our men grew ill ; so, having refreshed ourselves, 
with sweet water and fresh victual, we departed. 

The second of July, we smelt so sweet and so strong a 
smell, as if we had been in some delicate garden abounding 
with all kind of odoriferous flowers; by which we were 
assured that the land could not be far distant. And, keep- 
ing good watch, and bearing but slack sail, we arrived upon 
the coast. We sailed along a hundred and twenty Eng- 
lish miles before we could find any entrance, or river issu- 
ing into the sea. The first that appeared unto us we en- 
tered, though not without some difficulty, and cast anchor 
about three harquebus shot within the haven's mouth. 
And, after thanks given to God for our safe arrival thither, 
we manned our boat, and went to take possession in the 
name of the Queen's most excellent majesty. 

Which, being performed, we viewed the land about us, 
being very sandy and low toward the water's side; but so 
full of grapes, as that the very beating and surge of the 
sea overflowed with them ; of which we found plenty of 
vines, both on the sand and on the green hills, in the plains, 
as well on every little shrub, as also climbing towards the 
top of high cedars. 

We passed from the seaside towards the tops of those 
hills next adjoining, and from thence we beheld the sea 
on both sides. This land we found to be but an island 
of twenty miles long, and not above six miles broad. We 
beheld the valleys replenished with goodly cedar trees ; and, 
having discharged our harquebus shot, such a flock of 
cranes, the most part white, arose under us, with such a 



A Voyage to Virginia 49 

cry, and many echoes, as if an army of men had shouted all 
together. 

This island had many goodly woods full of deer, conies, 
hares and fowl; even in the midst of summer, in incredible 
abundance. The woods are not barren and fruitless, but 
the highest and reddest cedars of the world ; pines, cypress, 
sassafras, the tree that beareth the rind of black cinnamon, 
of which Master Winter brought from the straits of Ma- 
gellan; and many others of excellent smell and quality. 

We remained two whole days before we saw any people 
of the country. 

The third day we espied one small boat rowing towards 
us, having in it three people. This boat came to the island 
side, four harquebus shot from our ship ; and there two of 
the people remaining, the third came along the shoreside 
towards us. 

Then the master of the Admiral, Simon Ferdinando, and 
the captain, PhiHp Armadas, and myself and others rowed 
to the land. Whose coming this fellow attended, never 
making any show of fear or doubt. 

And, after he had spoken of many things not under- 
stood by us, we brought him, with his own good liking, 
aboard the ships; and gave him a shirt, a hat, and some 
other things; and made him taste of our wine and our 
meat, which he liked very well. And, having viewed both 
barks, he departed. 

The next day there came unto us divers boats, and in 
one of them the king's brother, accompanied with forty 
or fifty men; very handsome and goodly people, and in 
their behavior as mannerly and civil as any of Europe. 
His name was Granganimeo, and the king is called Win- 
gina ; the country now in honor of her majesty, Virginia. 
4 



50 Explorers and Settlers 

His servants spread a long mat on which he sat down; 
and, at the other end of the mat, four others of his com- 
pany did the like. The rest of his men stood round about 
him, somewhat afar off. When we came to the shore 
to him with our weapons, he never moved from his place, 
nor never mistrusted any harm to be offered from us; 
but beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we per- 
formed. 

And being sat, he made all signs of joy and welcome, 
striking on his head and his breast, and afterward on ours, 
to show we were all one ; smiling and making show, the 
best he could, of all love and familiarity. After he had 
made a long speech unto us, we presented him with divers 
things, which he received most joyfully and thankfully. 
None of the company durst speak one word all the time. 
Only the four which w^ere at the other end spake one in the 
other's ear very softly. 

The king is greatly obeyed, and his brother and children 
reverenced. The king himself was, at our being there, sore 
wounded in a fight which he had with the king of the next 
country. By reason whereof, and for that he lay at the 
chief town of the country, six days' journey off, we saw 
him not at all. 

After we had presented his brother with such things as 
we thought he liked, we likewise gave somewhat to the 
others that sat with him on the mat. But he arose, and 
took all from them, and put it into his basket, making signs 
that all ought to be delivered unto him, and the rest were 
but his servants and followers. 

A day or two after this, we fell to trading with them, 
exchanging some things that we had for various kinds of 
pelts and skins. When we showed him our packet of mer- 



A Voyage to Virginia 51 

chandise, of all things that he saw, a bright tin dish most 
pleased him, which he presently took up, and clapt it be- 
fore his breast, and after, made a hole in the brim thereof, 
and hung it about his neck, making signs that it would de- 
fend him against his enemy's arrows. We exchanged our 
tin dishes for twenty skins, worth twenty crowns, and a 
copper kettle for fifty skins. 

They offered us good exchange for our hatchets, and 
axes, and for knives, and would have given anything for 
swords, but we would not part with any. 

After two or three days the king's brother came on board 
the ship, and brought his wife with him, his daughter, 
and two or three children. His wife was very well fa- 
vored, of mean stature, and very bashful. She had on 
her back a long cloak of leather, with the fur side next to 
her body; and before her a piece of the same. About her 
forehead she had a piece of white coral, and so had her 
husband. In her ears she had bracelets of pearls (whereof 
we delivered your worship a little bracelet). And those 
were of the bigness of good pease. The rest of her women, 
of the better sort, had pendants of copper hanging in either 
ear. And some of the children of the king's brother, and 
other noblemen, had five or six in either ear. He him- 
self had upon his head a broad plate of gold or copper; 
for, being unpolished, we knew not what metal it should 
be; neither would he by any means suffer us to take it off 
his head. 

His apparel was as his wife's; only the women wear their 
hair long on both sides and the men only on one. They 
are of a color yellowish, and their hair black for the most 
part; and yet we saw children that had very fine auburn 
and chestnut-colored hair. 



^2 Explorers and Settlers 

After these women had been there, there came from all 
parts great store of people, bringing with them leather, 
coral, divers kinds of dyes, and exchanged with us. 

But when Granganimeo, the king's brother, was present 
none durst trade but himself, except such as wear red 
pieces of copper on their head, like himself. For that is 
the difference between noblemen and governors of coun- 
tries, and the meanest sort. And we noted that no people 
in the world carry more respect to their king, nobles, and 
governors than these do. The king's brother's wife was 
followed with forty or fifty women always, and when she 
came into the ship she left them all on land saving her 
two daughters, and one or two more. The king's brother 
always kept this order : as many boats as he would come 
withal to the ships, so many fires would he make on the 
shore afar off; to the end we might understand with what 
company he approached. 

Their boats are made of one tree, either of pine or of 
pitch. They have no edged tools to make them. If they 
have any of these it seems they had them twenty years since 
out of a wreck of a Christian ship, whereof none of the 
people were saved; but the only ship or some part of her 
being cast upon the sand ; out of whose sides they drew the 
nails and the spikes, and with those they made their best 
instruments. 

The manner of making their boats is thus: they burn 
down some great tree, or take such as are windfallen ; and, 
putting gum and rosin upon one side thereof, they set fire 
to it. And, when it hath burned it hollow, they cut out 
the coal with their shells. Ever when they would burn 
it deeper or wider, they lay on gums which burn away the 
timber. And by this means they fashion very fine boats, 



A Voyage to Virginia 53 

and such as will transport twenty men. Their oars are 
like scoops. 

The king's brother had great liking of our armor, a sword 
and divers other things we had, and offered to lay a great 




" And when it hath burned it hollow, they cut out the coal with their 

shells." 

box of pearls in gage for them. But we refused it for 
this time, because we would not let them know that we es- 
teemed thereof, until we had understood in what places of 
the country the pearls grew. 

He was very just of his promise. For many times we 
delivered him merchandise upon his word; but ever he 
came within the day, and performed his promise. 

He sent us every day a brace or two of fat bucks, conies, 
hares, fish; the best of the world. He sent us divers kinds 
of fruits, melons, walnuts, cucumbers, gourdes, pease, and 
divers roots; and of their country corn, which is very 



54 Explorers and Settlers 

white, fair, and well tasted, and groweth three times in 
five months. 

After they had been divers times aboard our ships, my- 
self, with seven more, went twenty miles into the river. 
And the following evening we came to an island which 
they call Roanoke. 

At the north end thereof was a village of nine houses, 
built of cedar, and fortified round about with sharp trees, 
to keep out their enemies; and the entrance into it made 
like a turnpike, very artificially. When we came towards 
it the wife of Granganimeo came running out to meet us, 
very cheerfully and friendly. Her husband was not 
then in the village. Some of her people she com- 
manded to draw our boats on shore. Others she ap- 
pointed to carry us on their backs to the dry ground ; and 
others to bring our oars into the house, for fear of steal- 
ing. 

When we were come into the outer room (having five 
rooms in her house), she caused us to sit down by a great 
fire. And she herself took great pains to see all things 
ordered in the best manner she could; making great haste 
to dress some meat for us to eat. 

Then she brought us into the inner room. 

She set on the board, standing along the house, some 
wheat, sodden venison, and roasted ; fish sodden, boiled, 
and roasted ; melons raw ; and sodden roots of divers kinds, 
and divers fruits. Their drink is commonly water; but, 
while the grape lasteth, they drink wine. But it is sodden, 
with ginger in it, and black cinnamon, and sometimes sas- 
safras, and divers other wholesome and medicinal herbs. 

We were entertained with all love and kindness, and 
with as much bounty as they could possibly devise. 



A Voyage to Virginia 55 

We found the people most gentle, loving, and faithful, 
void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the man- 
ner of the golden age. 

The people only care how to defend themselves from 
the cold in their short winter. Their meat is very well 
sodden, and they make broth sweet and savory. Their 
vessels are earthen pots, and their dishes are wooden plat- 
ters. 

While we were at our meat there came in at the gate 
two or three men with their bows and arrows from hunt- 
ing. Whom, when we espied, we began to look one to- 
ward another, and offered to reach our weapons. 

But as soon as she espied our mistrust, she was very 
much moved, and caused some of her men to run out and 
take away their bows and arrows and break them, and 
withal beat the poor fellows out of the gate again. 

When we departed in the evening, and would not tarry 
all night, she was very sorry, and gave us into our boat 
our supper half dressed, pots and all; and brought us to 
our boat side, in which we lay all night, removing the 
same a pretty distance from the shore. She, perceiving 
our jealousy, was much grieved, and sent divers men and 
thirty women to sit all night on the bank side by us; and 
sent up into our boats fine mats to cover us from the rain, 
using very many words to entreat us to rest in their houses. 

But because we were few men, and, if we had been lost, 
the voyage had been in very great danger, we durst not 
adventure anything; although there was no cause of doubt. 
For a more kind and loving people there cannot be found, 
as far as we have hitherto had trial. 

Thus, Sir, we have acquainted you with the particulars 
of our discovery, made this present voyage. And, so con- 



56 



Explorers and Settlers 



tenting ourselves with this service at this time, which we 
hope hereafter to enlarge, as occasion and assistance shall 
be given, we resolved to leave the country. 

Which we did accordingly, and arrived in the west of 
England about the midst of September. 

Master Philip Armadas, 
Master Arthur Barlow, 

Captains. 
We brought home, also, two of the savages; men whose 
names were Wanchese and Manteo. 




SOME EARLY VOYAGERS 
By Ernest Ingersol 

Expedition after expedition followed one another from 
Spain to the newly found possessions, some conducted by 
the earlier companions of Columbus, and all filled with 
adventurers who cared for nothing but plunder. One of 
these, led by an officer named Ojeda, reached the coast of 
Guiana in 1499, and coasted along the north shore of South 
America as far, probably, as Maracaibo. This was the 
first of the Spanish expeditions actually to set foot upon 
the mainland ; and it would not have been mentioned but 
for the fact that one of its mem- 
bers was that Amerigo Vespucci 
whose fortune it was to have his 
name attached to the continent. 

Americus Vespucius (or Ves- 
pusze, as Columbus spells it) was 
a Florentine engaged in the ship- 
ping business who was attracted 
to Spain by the maritime activity 
there, and became interested in 
equipping the second flotilla of 
Columbus and in other similar 
enterprises for the government. 
The v^ealth and influence thus 
eral abilities led him to join that expedition of Ojeda in 
1499, ^^^ during the next four years he made three other 

57 




Americus Vespucius. 
gained and his gen- 



58 



Explorers and Settlers 



voyages to Brazil, in which the bay of Rio Janeiro was 
entered (New Year's day, 1501), and an exploration south- 
ward extended probably as far as South Georgia (Islands). 
Upon his return from this last voyage, in 1505, he pub- 
licly asserted that he had visited, in 1497, the coast of 
what is now the southern United States. It has lately 



../^ 







J. 



"-^-iiit^C 




The "Santa Maria" — The flagship of Columbus' fleet. 

been shown by Spanish records, however, that at that date 
he was busy in the government dockyards in Spain; there- 
fore his assertion was false. It served, however, to de- 
ceive a forgetful public, and to procure for its author the 
coveted glory of being the first '' discoverer " of the '' New 
World," as he first called it (though there is no evidence 



Some Early Voyagers 59 

that he understood it to be a continent), and hence the one 
entitled to give it his name. 

This bold claim achieved its purpose. The oldest known 
map of the whole world, dated A. D. 1500, said to have 
been drawn by the great artist Leonardo da Vinci, from 
data furnished by Juan de la Cosa, 'and hence known to 
historians as the ** De la Cosa Mappimundi " (it is pre- 
served in Madrid), bears the name "America" across the 
new countries for the first known time; but Juan de la 
Cosa was with Ojeda and Vespucci on the expedition of 
1499, and doubtless Vespucci managed the naming. In 
1507, only a year after the death of Columbus, there ap- 
peared in France the " Cosmographie Introductio " of 
Waldseemiillcr (also called Hylacomylus), which was re- 
garded as the most complete and authentic geography of its 
time; and here the name of America was boldly written 
across " a fourth part of the world, since Amerigo found 
it." The name (a Latin derivative) was novel, easy to 
pronounce, no one knew or cared as to the right of it, and 
so it stood. 

A few lines more as to the Spanish and Portuguese navi- 
gators in these waters, and then we shall have done with 
them. In 1499 one of the Pingons sailed from Spain 
straight to the Amazon, as has been mentioned, avoiding 
the West Indies, as if he knew precisely whither he was 
bound, and reached there in January of 1500. A few 
months later a large Portuguese expedition under Pedro 
Cabral, starting for India around the cape, w^as blown so 
far to the west that it ran against Brazil. Everybody was 
hitting upon untrodden shores in those inspiring days, and 
Cabral promptly took possession for his king. As this 
shore was outside (east of) the hemisphere assigned by 



6o Explorers and Settlers 

the Pope to the Spanish, the Portuguese kept it for 389 
years, in spite of Pingon's priority. In 1508 Ojeda ob- 
tained the government of the northern coast of South 
America, and Nicuesa of the region north of the Gulf of 
Darien; and with the arrival of these adventurers in New 
Spain began that era of rapine and horror which will for- 
ever disgrace the Spanish name. The rapacious governors 
and their wild crews quarreled and fought with each other 
as well as with the downtrodden natives, and exploration 
was carried on by piracy. A learned man, Martin Enciso, 
went out to take command in 15 10 but he was deposed 
by his soldiers the next year and sent back to Europe, 
where he made the first book printed in Spanish ( 1519) de- 
scribing America. His place was taken by Vasco Nunez 
Balboa, who entered upon a career of exploration and 
peaceful conquest, generally conciliating the Indians, who 
told him of another sea not far to the west, and on Sep- 
tember 25, 15 13, guided him to the summit of a hill near 
Panama, whence he, first of Europeans, gazed upon the Pa- 
cific. Who can imagine the emotions of such a sight! — 
for it told the Spaniards that this land was not the eastern 
margin of Asia, but a new continent. Balboa made his 
way through the forests as rapidly as he could, and on the 
29th, wading into the surf, banner in hand, took possession 
of the waters in the name of the King of Castile. 

Balboa at once began preparations to utilize his discov- 
ery, for the Indians had also excited him and his men by 
tales of a country to the south abounding in gold. He 
cut and shaped timbers for small ships, and had with 
enormous trouble and labor transported these across the 
isthmus, intending there to build a fleet and sail south- 
ward, when he was superseded in command by a new gov- 



Some Early Voyagers 6l 

ernor, Pedrarias. This man, a jealous and brutal adven- 
turer, on a false pretext of disloyalty arrested and 
beheaded Balboa before he could get away — an act that 
" was one of the greatest calamities that could have hap- 
pened to South America at that time; for ... a hu- 
mane and judicious man would have been the conqueror 
of Peru, instead of the cruel and ignorant Pizarro." The 
frightful destruction of the country of the Incas soon fol- 
lowed, while Cortes overran Mexico and De Soto invaded 
Florida. 

It has doubtless by this time been in the mind of more than 
one reader to ask whether, while the men of the Medi- 
terranean region were making these notable searchings for 
new shores, the men of northern Europe were standing 
idle. What were the mariners of France and the Nether- 
lands, Scandinavia and Great Britain, doing? Well, all 
were doing something, and some of them produced results 
of novel seafaring that were well worth the getting, but 
these were principally in far northern waters. It was not 
until the opening of the sixteenth century that in England, 
at least, that era of far voyaging began which signalized 
the Elizabethan age on the sea as much as the poets and 
drmatists and statesmen-writers of her court distinguished 
it on land. 

It was, however, earlier than that — in the reign of 
Henry VII — that England's story of discovery begins, and 
the first names are those of two Italians known in English 
as John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, who were 
then residents of Bristol. The Bristol folk were at that 
time the foremost mariners of England, who often went 
to Iceland and all the nearer isles ; and they firmly believed 
in certain traditional islands and coasts far away to the 



62 Explorers and Settlers 

west, which seem to have been composed of no better ma- 
terial than the airy structures of the sunset clouds and the 
romantic tales of Phenician sailors and other travelers 
in the dawn of history. As long ago as when Strabo 
wrote, a century before the birth of Christ, these things 




Early voyagers. 

were of old belief, and he recounts the delights then told 
of the " Isles of the Blest," west of the farthest verge of 
Africa. When the Canary Islands became known as facts, 
the myth moved farther west ; and when acquaintance with 
the Azores proved them to be only natural earth with a 
fair share of its ills, as well as of its good, people in- 
sisted that still other islands must lie farther away, where 
the Elysian Fields basked in perpetual summer and men 
were eternally happy. The old idea charms us even yet 
when we sing " Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
stand dressed in living green." 

But no such higher rendering occurred to the men of the 
earlier time. They believed firmly in the actual existence 
of these ever-fortunate islands under the sunset horizon of 
the Atlantic, and (in the north) called them the Isles 
of St. Brandon, the " green isle of Brazil " (the root of 



Some Early Voyagers 63 

which word seems to express the idea of redness, such as 
appears in low sunset clouds), the Isle of the Seven Cities 
or Antillia, and by other names. Ferdinand Columbus, 
a son of Christopher, says in his " History " that his father 
fully expected to meet, " before he came to India, a very 
convenient island or continent from which he might pur- 
sue with more advantage his main design." This does 
not prove that Columbus put any faith in the reality of 
these old notions, nor does he seem to be responsible for 
tlie fact that the name Antilles was immediately attached 
to the archipelago he actually did meet with, and The Bra- 
j:ils to a part of the mainland next found. These names 
had been appearing on conjectural maps of the Atlantic 
side of the earth for many years before his time; and that 
they represented realities to many hard-headed merchants 
and sailors of his time is shown conclusively by the fact 
that between 1480 and 1487 at least two carefully planned 
naval expeditions had gone from Bristol, England, in search 
of them. How much vague memories of early Norse and 
Irish findings in the west may have given weight in Bristol 
to these old myths is hard to say ; but at any rate it was there 
the search for this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow 
l)ore unexpected and momentous results, but all were sur- 
prised at the distance involved. 

About 1496 John Cabot, then a resident of Bristol, pro- 
posed to the king an expedition in search of a new route 
to the Indies by sailing due west from Ireland. Henry 
VII was excited by the news of Columbus's southerly find- 
ings, and was eager to secure something of the kind for 
England. Nevertheless, although the king granted priv- 
ileges that might prove profitable in case of success, he 
seems to have furnished no monev. Cabot, therefore. 



64 Explorers and Settlers 

sailed away, privately equipped, in a small caravel named 
Matthezv, carrying only eighteen persons. 

Never was a voyage of discovery, the consequences of 
which were so far-reaching, entered upon with less pomp 
or flourish of trumpets. So little note of it was made at 
the time that the very name of John Cabot narrowly es- 
caped being lost altogether, and the record of his work 
came very near being replaced by a confused account of 
the doings of his son Sebastian; for it was not until cer- 
tain letters had been found — and that within a very few 
years — in the contemporary archives of Spain and other 
European countries, that we were able to give any sure 
account of the matter. 

It is now plain that John Cabot, in the Matthezv, leaving 
Bristol early in May, 1497, ^^^^ having passed Ireland, 
shaped his course toward the north then turned to the 
west and proceeded for many days until he came to land, 
where he disembarked on June 24, and planted an English 
flag. 

There seems to be no doubt that this was the mainland 
of North America, and the general opinion has prevailed 
that his landfall was the extremity of Cape Breton. Cabot 
stayed some days, but how far he traced the coast, and 
whether he learned of Newfoundland or Prince Edward 
Island, are matters of conjecture. At any rate, he soon 
turned homeward, and arrived in Bristol probably on Au- 
gust 6. 

We can imagine with what eagerness his story was lis- 
tened to, as he told of the fair, temperate, well-wooded 
land, its people and animals and fruit fulness, that he had 
seen. But the thing that impressed the Bristol men most 
was the report of the enormous abundance of codfish there. 



Some Early Voyagers 



65 



This was something these canny men could see without any 
illusions, and possess themselves of regardless of papal bulls ; 
and they at once abandoned their northern fishing-grounds 
and began to resort to the Banks of Newfoundland, whither 
they were quickly followed by large annual fleets of Nor- 
man, Breton, Spanish, and Portuguese fishermen. John 
Cabot intended to go again the next year and make his 





«^i% 


' 


— .'■; - 






% 


V 




• ■ i '■ 


■ -.1^ 




- 








< 

■t 




^. 


' %r^^ "■ r 


. - • - ' ■ 








i' 


Li 1 f^: 



Part of Sebastian Cabot's map of 1544. 

way onward to Japan, as he believed he could do, for, like 
the others, he thought what he had found was only a remote 
eastern part of Asia; and in 1498 he actually did sail west- 
ward from Bristol with five ships, victualed for a year. 
None of these ships ever returned, and no evidence exists 
that they ever reached their goal ; and with them John Cabot, 
to whom England owed her early supremacy in North Amer- 
ica, disappears from view. 

Sebastian Cabot was a son of John Cabot, and a skilful 

map-maker. Whether he went with his father on the first 

voyage is disputed ; there seems no direct evidence that he 

did so. That he did not go on the second voyage is plain, 

5 



66 Explorers and Settlers 

for he had a long subsequent career, of which accurate 
knowledge is a late acquisition; here it is only necessary to 
add that by his statements to Peter Martyr and others he 
allowed the erroneous impression to pass into history, if he 
did not directly authorize the lie, that it was he, and not his 
father, who discovered America and the fishing-grounds. 

Now that the way across the Atlantic was learned, chiv- 
alrous sailors hurried to add what they could to the map. 
Corte-Real, a Portuguese of rank, struck northwest, and 
hit upon and named Labrador as early as 1500. The next 
voyage of prominence introduces the French as competitors, 
Francis I sending Florentine Verrazano, a typical sea- 
rover of the period, who had already been to Brazil and the 
East Indies and was finally hanged as a pirate, to find out 
what he could about northern America. He steered west 
from the Madeira Islands in January, 1524, found land near 
Cape Fear (North Carolina), and claimed to have traced 
the coast as far north as Nova Scotia, besides entering a 
large bay (either New York or Narragansett). His whole 
story, however, rests on certain letters and maps the au- 
thenticity of which has been hotly disputed; and at any rate 
little, if anything, came of this voyage. 

It was far different with the next one, however, — that 
one sent from France in 1534, under the command of 
Jacques Cartier, who sailed from St. Malo in two tiny ves- 
sels to Newfoundland, and learned of the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence River. Then, like all the other captains, none 
of whom could stay over winter in America, because their 
vessels were too small to store provisions, and because they 
were beset by fears, not only of visible savages, but of in- 
visible hobgoblins, he returned to France. The next year 
found him back again, however, this time steering his ves- 



Some Early Voyagers 



67 



sels up the St. Lawrence to " Hochelaga " (Montreal), and 
later carrying home an account that led to so immediate a 
movement on the part of France that Canada was the scene 
of the earliest colonization of the New World, properly 
speaking, for the Spanish settlements in the south were thus 
far nothing but military stations. France, indeed, dreamed 
of obtaining the whole of North America for herself, and 
attempted soon after to colonize Florida and the Carolinas; 
but these attempts failed, and she was able to hold only the 
valley of the St. Lawrence and the shore of its gulf. These 
things happened later, however, and for many years the 
Atlantic coast of North America was left unclaimed by any 
one, while the English and Dutch were busy in the far north, 
the Spanish were rioting in the tropics, and the Portuguese 
turned their attention to the southern and eastern quarters 
of the globe. It is one of the most striking curiosities of 
the history of the development of civilization on the globe, 
following the stagnation of the Middle Ages and the desola- 
tion of the plague-ridden thirteenth century, that the most 
remote, unprofitable, unhealthy regions were so fiercely 
struggled for, while the best parts of the New World were 
left until the last. 




The sea of darkness. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA 

i. introduction 

By Captan Alfred T. Mahan 

The fate of the Spanish Armada, as Mr. Tilton remarks 
below, stands conspicuous among the great catastrophes of 
war narrated by history. According to the estimate of the 
Spanish captain Duro, who has made a close study of the 
records in his own country, out of one hundred and thirty 
sail of which the Armada was composed when it left Lis- 
bon on May 30, 1588, sixty-three were lost. Of these only 
nine fell in battle or in immediate consequence thereof, al- 
though the injuries received in the various actions in the 
Channel doubtless contributed to the ultimate shipwreck of 
many. Nineteen were cast away on the Scottish and Irish 
coasts; thirty-five disappeared altogether. Of these last, 
it is possible that some of the smaller classes of vessels may 
have reached port, and that the fact passed unnoted ; but of 
the forty-odd larger vessels which never returned, the prob- 
ability is that those whose fate is unknown perished at sea. 

But although the winds and waves were the means by 
which was wrought the final ruin of the Armada, the first 
causes of the disasters that befell the Spanish ships are to 
be found in very commonplace human mismanagement. It 
was not that exceptional mischances attended the enterprise. 
On the contrary, it had some very good luck at critical mo- 
ments. But the general scheme was defective and ill-knit; 

68 



The Spanish Armada 69 

the commander-in-chief, Medina Sidonia, was incompetent; 
and the vessels themselves were not adapted for the kind of 
fighting which they were expected to do. Relying upon 
boarding rather than upon artillery, they nevertheless were 
neither swift enough nor handy enough to grapple their 
agile antagonists. The latter, expert with their guns, which 
were more powerful than those opposed to them, and able 
by their better nautical qualities to choose their distance and 
time of attack, fought upon their own terms. 

The general scheme, as shown by the instructions to the 
admiral, was to enter the English Channel, traverse it to 
the eastern end, and there to make a junction with the 
Duke of Parma, commanding the Spanish army in Belgium. 
The combined forces — the Armada itself carried six thou- 
sand troops — were then to invade England. The plan was 
defective, because it did not command, even if it did not 
actually discourage, a previous battle with the English navy 
so as to disable the latter from harassing the intended pas- 
sage. It was ill-knit, for due provision was not made to 
insure the junction, the place and manner of which were left 
largely undetermined. Above all, no attention was paid to 
the advice of Parma, a skilful and far-seeing warrior, to 
seize Flushing, at the mouth of the Scheldt, so as to provide 
a safe harbor for the Armada during the period necessary 
for embarking the troops. Failing this, no anchorage was 
available for the unwieldy vessels, except such as they might 
find on the English coast, exposed to constant molestation 
by the enemy. In short, the security of the fleet, and the 
time and manner of the junction, were left to chance. 

The Armada entered the English Channel on July 30, 
and on the 6th of August anchored off Calais, having 
traversed the Channel successfully In a week. Three several 




Battle between the British fleet and the Armada. 



The Spanish Armada 71 

actions had occurred. None was decisive; but all tended 
generally in favor of the English, who utilized their ad- 
vantages of speed and artillery to hammer the foe with their 
long guns, while keeping out of range of his muskets and 
lighter cannon. The Spanish losses in battle, by a Spanish 
authority, were six hundred killed and eight hundred 
wounded. The English loss, from first to last, did not reach 
one hundred. Such a discrepancy tells its own tale; but 
it is to be remembered, moreover, that men slain means 
sides pierced and frames shattered. Shot that fly w^ide, or 
that cut spars, sails, and rigging, kill comparatively few. 
With hulls thus damaged, the Spaniards had to confront the 
equinoctial gales of the Atlantic. 

At Calais, a friendly town, Parma might possibly join; 
but there was no harbor for big ships, and it was unreason- 
able to expect that he, with the whole charge of the Nether- 
lands on his hands, would be waiting there, ignorant when 
the fleet would appear, or whether it would come at all. 
Medina Sidonia sent him word of his arrival; but it could 
not be hoped that the English would allow the fleet to oc- 
cupy that unprotected position undisturbed. The wind 
being to the westward, they anchored at a safe distance to 
windward, and on the night of August 7 sent against the 
Spaniards eight fire-ships. The ordinary means of divert- 
ing these failing, the Spanish admiral got under way. In 
this operation the fleet drifted nearer the shore, and the 
wind next day coming out strong from the northwest and 
setting the ships bodily on the coast, he, under the advice 
of the pilots, stood into the North Sea. Had Flushing been 
in their possession, it might, with good pilots, have aflforded 
a refuge ; but it was held by the Dutch. The enemy's ships, 
more weatherly, drew up and engaged again ; while the con- 




" Silent groups about the decks. 



The Spanish Armada 73 

tinuance of the wind, and the clumsiness of the Spaniards, 
threatened destruction upon the shoals off the Flemish coast. 
The sudden shifting of the wind to the south saved them 
when already in only six or seven fathoms of water. Here, 
again, was no bad luck; nor could it be considered a mis- 
fortune that the southerly breeze, which carried them to 
the Pentland Frith, changed to the northeast as they passed 
the Orkneys and entered the Atlantic, being thus fair for 
their homeward course. 

The disasters of the Armada were due to the following 
causes: i. The failure to prescribe the effectual crippling 
of the English navy as a condition precedent to any attempt 
at invasion. 2. The neglect to secure beforehand a suitable 
point for making the junction with the army. Combina- 
tions thus intrusted to chance have no right to expect suc- 
cess. 3. The several actions with the English failed be- 
cause the ships, which could exert their power only close 
to the enemy, were neither so fast nor so handy as the latter. 
Only those who have the advantage of range can afford in- 
feriority of speed. 4. The disasters in the Atlantic were 
due either to original unseaworthiness, or to damage re- 
ceived in action, or to bad judgment in taking unweatherly 
ships too close to the shores of Ireland, where strong west- 
erly gales prevailed, and the coast was inhospitable. 

ii. the fate of the armada 
By William Frederic Tilton 

History records few episodes that surpass in romantic 
and tragic interest the fate that befell the Invincible Armada 
after its repulse from the shores of England. It occupies 
in naval annals a position similar to that taken in military 



74 Explorers and Settlers 

history by the catastrophe of Napoleon's retreat from Mos- 
cow. As in Napoleon's disaster, so here, the dumb ruth- 
lessness of nature joined the cruelty of man in marking with 
scenes of indescribable horror the fatal turning-point in the 
fortunes of a monarch who was aiming at the sovereignty of 
Europe. It was no exaggeration when the Dutch rebels, 
jubilant over the dispersion of the Armada, struck a medal 
showing the world slipping from King Philip's fingers. 

Europe was waiting with bated breath to hear the result 
of the conflict between Spain and England; for on the issue 
of this duel of giants depended the future of mankind. A 
victory for Elizabeth promised intellectual and political free- 
dom, growth, and strength to the nations which should prove 
themselves worthy of these gifts, while a victory for Philip 
meant the ultimate triumph of the mighty Counter-Reforma- 
tion, the destruction of the work of Luther and Calvin. 

At first came rumors of a great Spanish victory. Men- 
doza, Philip's ambassador in Paris, who during the critical 
days had done '' nothing but trot up and down from church 
to church " to pray for success, and had boasted that before 
October his master would have public mass said in St. 
Paul's, at once hurried off couriers to Spain with the good 
news, and could scarcely restrain himself from having bon- 
fires lighted before his house. 

In Spain the progress and fortunes of the Armada had 
naturally been the one all-absorbing theme of boasting or 
conjecture, in palace and monastery, in street and shop. 
From every altar of the land fervent prayers for its success 
were rising. The king himself passed hours of every day 
upon his knees before the sacrament; and those in waiting 
on him declared that he often rose in the night, sighing to 
Heaven for victory. 



The Spanish Armada 



75 



And now came Mendoza's good news. Yet the king, 
feverish as was his longing for success, was too old a player 
to put absolute trust in his ambassador's confused report ; 
for the sanguine, magniloquent Mendoza had a reputation 
for '' deceiving himself." So Philip, in an agony of con- 
flicting doubt and hope, shut 
himself up in the Escorial, 
and would give no audience 
until he should receive more 
certain tidings. 

While Mendoza's ridicu- 
lous rumors were circulating 
through the courts of the 
Continent, the Armada was in 
reality flying, crippled and 
miserable, into the fogs and 
gales of the German Ocean. 
For Philip's fleet, if not actu- 
ally conquered, had been ter- 
ribly shattered by the inces- 
sant, deadly fire of the Eng- 
lish gunners in the great fight 
of Gravelines. When the 
Spanish admiral, the Duke of 
Medina Sidonia, counted over 
his ships after the battle, several were missing, among 
them those of the two heroes of the day on the Spanish 
side, the dashing, irresistible soldier-sailors Toledo and 
Pimentel, who, having fought till, in the words of a 
Spanish officer present, their crack galleons were " knocked 
in pieces, and the crews nearly all dead or wounded," 
drifted in the black night, helpless, or rather unhelped. 




Philip II. 



From photogravure of ] 

Madrid. By pel 



by Titian in the Prado Mu 
of Berlin Thutographic Co. 



76 Explorers and Settlers 

away from their consorts toward the Low-Country 
coast. Toledo ran ashore on Nieuport beach, and there 
found himself among Spaniards and friends. Pimentel had 
a different fortune. Drifting along the coast between Os- 
tend and the Sluys, his ship was reported to '* the brave 
Lord Willoughby " of the ballad, at this time lord-general 
of the Queen's forces in the Low Countries, who sent out 
three men-of-war against her. After a sharp fight of two 
hours, Pimentel, yielding to exhaustion and the odds against 
him, struck his colors. The *' best sort " among the pris- 
oners were spared for their ransoms ; the rest were knocked 
on the head and flung into the sea. 

One of the most fatal spots for Armada ships had been 
Sligo Bay. When Geoffrey Fenton went to view this scene 
of disaster, he found Spanish guns sunk half a horseman's 
staff in the shifting sand, and '' numbered in one strand of 
less than five miles in length above eleven hundred dead 
corpses of men which the sea had driven upon the shore " ; 
and the country people told him '* the like was in other 
places, though not of like number." Somewhat later, the 
lord deputy, on his way, as he expressed it, to despatch 
'' those rags " of the Spaniards which still infected the coun- 
try, saw with amazement the masses of wreckage scattered 
along a beach on the same coast — timber enough to build 
" five of the greatest ships that ever I saw, besides mighty 
great boats, cables and other cordage, and some such masts 
for bigness and length as I never saw any two could make 
the like." A copy of the sailing directions given by Medina 
Sidonia, found perhaps in some captain's sea-chest among 
the wreckage, fell into the lord deputy's hands. A grim 
smile must have flitted over his face as he read the words : 
" Take great heed lest you fall upon the Island of Ireland 



The Spanish Armada 



77 



for fear of the harm that may happen unto you upon that 
coast." An Armada rehc still more touching than these in- 
structions is part of a letter written off Dingle by a Spanish 
captain, begging the President of Munster for friendly treat- 
ment. Into a bundle of state papers which tell, in the lan- 
guage of the victors, the awful story of shipwreck and 
bloodshed on the Irish coast, this fragment, rusty and stained 
as if by salt water, has strayed like a wail from the van- 
quished. 




ANECDOTES OF RALEIGH AND GILBERT 

RETOLD WITH QUOTATIONS FROM HAKLUYT's VOYAGES AND 
OTHER SOURCES 

Of all the early voyagers, Sir Walter Raleigh was the 

best able to write of his own adventures. Most of these 

explorers were readier with the sword 

than with the pen. They were too 

busy making history to write of it. 

Sir Walter spent some years in study 

at Oxford in his younger days and 

had unusual literary ability. 

His life was full of adventure. 

He left college to volunteer in the 

Huguenot cause in France, and, with 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half- 
Sir Walter Raleigh. i^ i i.^Ti i^ru^ 
brother, he went to Ireland to tight. 

He later made a journey with Leicester and upon his return 

to England became a great favorite of the Queen and court. 

While still a young man of thirty-three he became greatly 
interested in exploring and colonizing the Atlantic Coast. 
He sent out a fleet in 1584 and two more in 1585-87. The 
colonies which were started were not lasting and are said 
to have cost Raleigh two hundred thousand dollars or more. 

He now retired to one of his estates at Youghal, in Ire- 
land, comprising some 40,000 acres. 

In the garden adjoining his house at Youghal, Raleigh 
planted the first potatoes ever grown in Ireland. The vege- 

78 




Anecdotes of Raleigh and Gilbert 79 

table was brought to him from the Httle colony which he 
endeavored to establish in Virginia. The colonists started 
in April, 1585, and Thomas Harriot, one of their number, 
wrote a description of the country in 1587. He describes 
a root which must have been the potato : 

Openank are a kind of roots of round form, some of the bignesse 
of wahiuts some farre greater, which are found in moist & marish 
grounds growing many together one by another in ropes, as 
though they were fastened with a string. Being boiled they are 
very good meat. 

The Spaniards first brought potatoes to Europe, but Ra- 
leigh was undoubtedly the first to introduce the plant into 
Ireland. 

So also it was with a more doubtful boon from the New 
World : the introduction of tobacco. In Harriot's descrip- 
tion of Virginia there is a passage with reference to this 
plant : 

There is an herbe which is sowed apart by itselfe, & is called 
by the inhabitants Uppowoc : in the West Indies it hath divers 
names according to the several places & countreys where it 
groweth & is used: the Spanyards generally call it Tobacco. 
The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder they 
use to take the fume or smoake thereof by sucking thorow pipes 
made of clay into their stomacke & head. 

We ourselves during the time we were there used to sucke it 
after their manner, as also since our returne, & have found many 
rare & woonderfuU experiments of the vertues thereof: of which 
the relation would require a volume by itselfe : the use of it of 
late by so many men and women of greate calling, is sufficient 
witnesse. 

One of these "men of greate calling" was undoubtedly 
Raleigh, who set the fashion among courtiers of smoking 



8o 



Explorers and Settlers 



and introduced the custom into Ireland. There is a well- 
known story of how his servant, seeing him one day envel- 
oped in smoke, and thinking him on fire, threw the contents 
of a tankard of ale over him to save his life. 

Spenser tells the story of how Raleigh introduced him 
to Queen Elizabeth and gained her ear to the recital of his 
poem, '' The Faery Queen," with the happy result that she 
made him poet-laureate with a pension of £50 a year, and 
that his great poem, forever famous in English literature, 
soon saw the light. Raleigh was indeed ever ready to use 
his influence at court for the advancement of his friends.. 
On one occasion, when he came to crave a favor for an- 
other, Elizabeth said to him, '' When, Sir Walter, will you 
cease to be a beggar? " " When your Majesty ceases to be a 
benefactor," was the courtly reply. 

The portrait of Raleigh given on page 78 was taken 
from the best of the many pictures of 
im. It shows Raleigh's high intellectual 
forehead and long, handsome face, his 
thoughtful, penetrating eyes, and general 
air of superiority. His love of splendor 
is indicated by the countless jewels em- 
broidered on his doublet, and the 
big pearl in his broad-brimmed hat. 
In 1592 Raleigh equipped another 
expedition with which he did not 
sail. Then incurring the displeasure 
of Queen Elizabeth he was imprisoned 
in the Tower for some time. 
In 1593 he equipped a fleet of five ships 
with which he explored the coast of Trini- 
dad and sailed up the Orinoco. 




Anecdotes of Raleigh and Gilbert 8i 

But a time came when his enemies triumphed over him, 
caused him to be imprisoned on a false charge of treason 
and finally to be beheaded. 

Raleigh by his earnestness and pains had done much for 
colonization, although the direct projects often failed. 

One of the earlier expeditions with which his half-brother, 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sailed, not only met with failure but 
Gilbert himself was lost. 

Longfellow has told the story in a poem : 

Eastward from Campobello 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed : 
Three days or more seaward he bore. 

Then, alas ! the land-wind failed. 

Alas, the land-wind failed 

And ice-cold grew the night ; 
And never more on sea or shore. 

Should Sir Humphrey see the light. 

He sat upon the deck, 

The Book was in his hand ; 
" Do not fear ! Heaven is as near," 
He said " by water as by land ! " 

A part of the prose account in Hakluyt's " Voyages " of 
the loss of Sir Humphrey Gilbert is given below : 

But when he was entreated by the captain, master, and 
other his well-willers of the Hind, not to venture in the 
frigate, this was his answer: I will not forsake my little 
company going homeward, with whom I have passed so 
many storms and perils. And in very truth, he was urged 
to be so over hard, by hard reports given of him, that he 
was afraid of the sea, albeit this was rather rashness than 

6 



82 Explorers and Settlers 

advised resolution, to prefer the wind of a vain report to 
the weight of his ow^n Hfe. 

Seeing he would not bend to reason, he had provision out 
of the Hind, such as was wanting aboard his frigate. And 
so we committed him to God's protection, and set him aboard 
his pinnace, we being more than 300 leagues onward of our 
way home. 

By that time we had brought the islands of Azores south 
of us ; yet we then keeping much to the north, until we 
had got into the height and elevation of England, we met 
with very foul weather and terrible seas, breaking short and 
high, pyramid wise. The reason whereof seemed to pro- 
ceed either of hilly grounds, high and low, within the sea 
(as we see hills and dales upon the land), upon which the 
seas do mount and fall ; or else the cause proceedeth of di- 
versity of winds, shifting often In sundry points, all which 
having power to move the great ocean, which again is not 
presently settled, so many seas do encounter together as 
there had been diversity of winds. Howsoever it cometh to 
pass, men which all their life time had occupied the sea, 
never saw more outrageous seas. We had also upon our 
mainyard, an apparition of a little fire by night, which sea- 
men do call Castor and Pollux. But we had only one, 
which they take an evil sign of more tempest; the same is 
usual in storms. 

Monday the ninth of September, in the afternoon, the 
frigate was near cast away, oppressed by waves ; yet at that 
time recovered; and giving forth signs of joy, the general 
sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in 
the Hind (so oft as we did approach within hearing) : We 
are as near to heaven by sea as by land. Reiterating the 



Anecdotes of Raleigh and Gilbert 83 

same speech, well beseeming a soldier, resolute in JeSus 
Christ, as I can testify he was. 

The same Monday night, about twelve of the clock, or 
not long after, the frigate being ahead of us in the Golden 
Hind, suddenly her lights were out, whereof, as it were in 
a moment, w^e lost the sight, and withal our watch cried, the 
general was cast away, which was too true. For in that 
moment, the frigate was devoured and sw^allowed up of the 
sea. Yet still we looked out all that night and ever after, 
until we arrived upon the coast of England, omitting no 
small sail at sea, unto which we gave not the tokens be- 
tween us agreed upon, to have perfect knowledge of each 
other, if we should at any time be separated. 

In great torment of weather and peril of drowning, it 
pleased God to send safe home the Golden Hind, which ar- 
rived in Falmouth, the 22nd day of September, being Sun- 
day, not without as great danger escaped in a flaw, coming 
from the southeast, with such thick mist that we could not 
discern land, to put in right with the haven. 




A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES 

FROM HAKLUYT'S " VOYAGES " 

SELECTIONS BY FLORENCE WATTERS SNEDEKER 

Master John Hawkins, having made divers voyages to the 
Isles of the Canaries, and there, by his good and upright deaUng 
grown in love and favor with the people, . . . assuming that 
Negroes were very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store 
of Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, re- 
solved with himself to make trial thereof. 




Proclamation of the LeagU( 
was made." 



He was a brave man; later 
lie was a vice-admiral of the 
Enolish fleet which fought 
against the great 
Spanish Armada, and 
was knighted for his 
bravery upon that oc- 
casion ; a good man 
and shrewd, writing 
in his ship-orders, 
" Serve God daily, 
love one another, pre- 
serve your victuals, beware 
of fire, and keep good com- 
pany." But he was the first 
of Englishmen to commit 
the sin of taking up the 
slave-trade. 



84 



A Voyage to the West Indies 85 

He made two successful voyages, returning home with 
his vessel laden with '' hides, ginger, sugar, and some quan- 
tity of pearls." Then, upon the third voyage, disaster over- 
took him. Of it he wrote : 

If all the miseries and troublesome affairs of this sorrowful 
voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written, there should 
need a painful man with his pen, and as great a time as he had 
that wrote the lives and deaths of the martyrs. 

Three accounts of this voyage have been gathered by 
Hakluyt: a brief one by Hawkins himself, another by Miles 
Phillips, and a third by the simple gunner, Job Hortop. 
This last account is as follows : 

I, Job Hortop, powder-maker, was from my age of twelve 
years brought up with Mr. Francis Lee, the Queen's powder- 
maker. Whom I served until I was pressed to go on the 
third voyage to the West Indies, with the right worshipful 
Sir John Hawkins, who appointed me to be one of the gun- 
ners in her Majesty's ship called the Jesus of Luheck. 

[They went first to Africa, captured a cargo of slaves, 
and proceeded to the " mainland of the West Indies."] 

We came in, and tarried two months dressing our ships ; 
and in the meantime traded with certain Spaniards of that 
country. There our General sent us into a town which 
stood on a high hill, to entreat a bishop there for his favor 
and friendship in their laws. Who, hearing of our coming, 
forsook the town in fear. 

On our way up the hill, we found a monstrous venomous 
worm with two heads. His body was as big as a man's arm, 
and a yard long. Our master, Robert Barret, did cut him 
in sunder with his sword ; and it made the steel as black as 
if it were colored with ink. 



86 Explorers and Settlers 

Here be many tigers, monstrous and furious beasts, which 
subtly devour men. They use the traveled ways, and will 
show themselves twice or thrice to the travelers, and so 
depart secretly, lurking till they be past. Then suddenly 
they leap upon them. They would have so used two of our 
company, had not one of them looked behind. 

Our General sent the Angel and the Judith to Rio de 
Hacha, where he anchored before the town. The Span- 
iards shot three cannon at us from the shore, whom we 
requited with two of ours, and shot through the governor's 
house. In the meantime, there came a caravel from San 
Domingo, whom w^e chased and drove to the shore. We 
fetched him thence in spite of two hundred Spanish arque- 
bus-shot, and anchored again before the town; and rode 
there with them till our General's coming. 

We landed and planted on the shore our field ordnance. 
We drove the Spaniards up into the country above two 
leagues. 

Thence we shaped our course to Santa Marta, where wx 
landed, traded, and sold negroes. 

There two of our company killed a monstrous adder 
going toward his cave with a cony in his mouth. His body 
was as big as a man's thigh, and seven feet long. Upon his 
tail he had sixteen knots, every one as big as a great walnut, 
which they say do show his age. His color was green and 
yellow. 

From thence we sailed to Cartagena, where we went in, 
moored our ships, and would have traded with them. But 
they durst not, for fear of the king. We brought up against 
the castle our vessel, the Minion, and shot at the castle and 
town. 

Then we landed in an island, where were many gardens. 



A Voyage to the West Indies 87 

There in a cave we found many botijos of wine, which we 
brought away with us. In recompense whereof, our Gen- 
eral commanded to be set on shore woolen and linen cloth, 
to the value thereof. 

From hence by foul weather we were forced to seek the 
port of St. John de UUua. In our way we met with a 
small ship that was bound for San Domingo. On board 
was a Spaniard called Augustin de Villa Nova, who was 
the man who betrayed all the noble men in the Indies, and 
caused them to be beheaded; wherefore he fled to San Do- 
mingo. Him we took and brought with us into the port of 
St. John de Ullua. Our General made great account of 
him, and used him like a nobleman. Howbeit, in the end, 
he was one of them that betrayed us. 

When we had moored our ships and landed, we mounted 
the ordnance we found in the island, and for our safeties 
kept watch and ward. 

The next day after, we discovered the Spanish fleet; 
thereof Lugan was general. With him came Don Martin 
Henriquez, whom the King of Spain sent to be his viceroy 
of the Indies. He sent a pinnace with a flag of truce 
unto our General to know ''Of what country those ships 
were that rode in the King of Spain's port? " 

Who said, " The}^ were the Queen of England's ships, 
which came in there for victuals for their money. Where- 
fore, if your General wishes to come in here, he shall give 
me victuals and all other necessaries, and I will go out on 
one side of the port, and he shall come in on the other." 

The Spaniard returned for answer, '' That he was a 
viceroy, and had a thousand men, and therefore he would 
i:ome in ! " 

Our General said, ''If he be a viceroy, I represent my 



88 Explorers and Settlers 

Queen's person, and am a viceroy as well as he. And if he 
have a thousand men, my powder and shot will outweigh 
them! " 

Then the viceroy, after counsel among themselves, yielded 
to our General's demand; swearing by his King and his 
crown, by his commission and authority, that he would per- 
form it. 

Thereupon pledges were given on both sides, and then 
proclamation was solemnly made on both sides : that on pain 
of death, no occasion should be given whereby any quarrel 
should grow to the breach of the league. And then they 
peaceably entered the port, with great triumphs on both 
sides. 

The Spaniards presently brought a great hulk, a ship of 
six hundred, and moored her by the side of the Minion. 
And they cut out portholes in their other ships, planting 
their ordnance toward us. In the night they filled the hulk 
with men; which made our General doubtful of their deal- 
ings. 

Wherefore, for that he could speak the Spanish tongue, 
he sent Robert Barret aboard the viceroy's ship, to know 
his meaning in those dealings. Who willed him with his 
company to come in to him, and commanded to be set in the 
bilboes.^ 

And forthwith a trumpet (for a watchword among the 
false Spaniards) was sounded for the carrying out of their 
treason against our General. Whom Augustin de Villa 
Nova, sitting at dinner with him, w^ould then have killed 
with a poynado ^ which he had privily in his sleeve, but was 
espied and prevented by one John Chamberlayne, who took 
the poynado out of his sleeve. Our General hastily rose up, 

^ The stocks. 2 Poniard. 



A Voyage to the West Indies 89 

and commanded him to be put prisoner in the Steward's 
room, and to be kept with two men. 

The faithless Spaniards, thinking all things to their de- 
sire had been finished, suddenly sounded a trumpet. And 
therewith three hundred Spaniards entered the Minion. 

Whereat our General, with a loud and fierce voice, called, 
" God and Saint George ! Upon those traitorous villains, 
and rescue the Minion! I trust in God the day shall be 
ours ! " 

With that the mariners and soldiers leaped out of the 
Jesus of Liiheck into the Minion, and beat out the Span- 
iards, and, with a shot out of her, set fire to the Spanish 
vice-admiral's vessel; where the most part of three hun- 
dred Spaniards were spoiled and blown overboard with 
powder. The admiral's ship also was on fire half an hour. 

We cut our cables, drew off our ships, and fought with 
them. They came upon us on every side, and continued 
the fight from ten of the clock until it was night. They 
killed all our men that were on shore in the Island, saving 
three, which, by swimming, got aboard the Jesus of Lubeck. 
They sunk the General's ship, and took the Szvallozu. The 
Spanish admiral's vessel had about threescore shot through 
her. Four other of their ships were sunk. There were in 
that fleet, and that came from the shore to rescue them, 
fifteen hundred. We slew five hundred and forty. 

In this fight the Jesus of Lubeck had five shots through 
her mainmast. Her foremast was shot in sunder, under 
the hounds,^ with a chain-shot; and her hull was wonder- 
fully pierced with shot. It was impossible to bring her 
away. 

They set two of their own ships on fire, intending through 

^ Projecting pieces near the masthead. 



90 



Explorers and Settlers 



them to have burnt the Jesus of Lubeck; which we pre- 
vented by cutting our cables in halves, and drawing off. 




" A shot from a liglit cannon struck away the cup." 

The Minion was forced to set sail, and stand off from us, 
and come to an anchor without shot of the island. 

Our General courageously cheered up his soldiers and 



A Voyage to the West Indies 91 

gunners, and ordered Samuel, his page, to bring him a cup 
of beer, who brought it to him in a silver cup; and he 
called to the gunners to stand by their ordnance lustily, like 
men. 

He had no sooner set the cup out of his hand, but a shot 
from a light cannon struck away the cup and a cooper's 
plane that stood by the mainmast, and ran out on the other 
side of the ship. Which nothing dismayed our General; 
for he ceased not to encourage us, saying, " Fear nothing ; 
for God, who hath preserved me from this shot, will also 
deliver us from these traitors and villains ! " 

Then Captain Bland, meaning to have turned out of the 
port, had his mainmast struck overboard with a chain-shot 
that came from the shore. Wherefore he anchored, fired 
his ship, took his pinnace with all his men, and came aboard 
the Jesus of Luheck to our General. 

Who said unto him, that he thought he would not have 
run away from him. He answered, that he was not minded 
to run away; but his intent was, to have turned up, and to 
have laid aboard the weathermost side of the Spanish fleet, 
and fired his ship in hope therewith to have set on fire the 
Spanish fleet. The General said if he had done so, he had 
done well. 

With this, night came on. Our General commanded the 
Minion, for safeguard of her masts, to be brought under 
the Jesus of Luheck' s lee. He willed Mr. Francis Drake to 
come in with the JuditJi, and to lay aboard the Minion: to 
take in men and other things needful, and to go out. And 
so he did. 

When the wind came off the shore, we set sail ; and went 
out in despite of the Spaniards and their shot. 

We anchored under the island, the wind being northerly, 



92 Explorers and Settlers 

which was dangerous, and we feared every hour to be 
driven with the lee shore. 

When the wind came larger, we weighed anchor, and set 
sail, seeking the river of Panuco for water, whereof we had 
very little. And victuals were so scarce, that we were 
driven to eat hides, parrots, and monkeys. 

Wherefore our General was forced to divide his com- 
pany into two parts. For there was a mutiny among them 
for want of victuals. And some said, that they had rather 
be on the shore to shift for themselves amongst the enemy, 
than to serve on shipboard. Those that would go on shore, 
he willed to go forward by the. foremast ; and those that 
would tarry, to go by baftmast.^ 

Seven score of us were willing to depart. 

Our General gave unto every one of us six yards of 
cloth, and money to them that demanded it. When we 
were landed, he came unto us. Where, friendly embracing 
every one of us, he was greatly grieved that he was forced 
to leave us behind him. He counseled us to serve God, and 
to love one another. And thus courteously he gave us a 
sorrowful farewell, and promised, if God sent him safe 
home, he would do what he could that so many of us as 
lived should be brought into England ; and so he did. Thus 
our General departed to his ships. 

Fearing the wild Indians that were about us, we kept 
watch all night. 

And at sun-rising we marched on our way, three and 
three in a rank, until we came into a field under a grove. 
Where the Indians came upon us, asking us what people we 
were, and how we came there. 

Two of our company, Anthony Goddard and John Cor- 

^ The abaft-mast, or mast nearer the stern. 



A Voyage to the West Indies 93 

nish, for that they could speak the Spanish tongue, went to 
them and said, We were EngHshmen, that never came in 
that country before, and that we had fought with the Span- 
iards ; and, for that we lacked victuals, our General set us 
on shore. 

They asked us, Whither we intended to go ? 

We said to Panuco. 

The captain of the Indians willed us to give unto them 
some of our clothes and shirts; which we did. Then he 
bade us give them all ; but we would not. Whereupon the 
captain willed us to follow him, who brought us into a great 
field, where we found fresh water. He bade us sit down 
about the pond, and drink ; and he and his company would 
go in the meantime to kill five or six deer, and bring them 
to us. We tarried there till three of the clock, but they 
came not. 

We traveled seven days and seven nights, feeding on 
roots, and guavas, a fruit like figs. 

Coming to the river of Panuco, two Spanish horsemen 
came over unto us in a canoe. They asked us. How long 
we had been in the wilderness, and where our General was ? 
for they knew us to be of that company that fought with 
their countrymen. We told them, Seven days and seven 
nights; and for lack of victuals our General set us on shore, 
and he was gone away. They returned to their governor, 
who sent five canoes to bring us all over. 

Which done, they set us in array ; where a hundred horse- 
men, with their lances, came forcibly toward us. But they 
did not hurt us. They kept us prisoners at Panuco for one 
night. Thence we were sent to Mexico. 

The king's palace was the first place we were brought 
into. Without, we were willed to sit down. Much people. 



94 Explorers and Settlers 

men, women, and children, came wondering about us. Many 
lamented our misery. Thence we were carried in a canoe to 
a tanner's house, which standeth a little way from the city. 

And then they brought us much relief, with clothes. Our 
sick men were sent to their hospitals, where many were 
cured. 

The viceroy intended to hang us. Whereunto the noble- 
mew of that country would not consent, but prayed him to 
stay until the ship of advice brought news from the King 
of Spain what should be done with us. Then this viceroy 
sent for our master, Robert Barret, whom he kept prisoner 
in his palace until the fleet was departed for Spain. 

The rest of us he sent to a town seven leagues from 
Mexico, to card wool among the Indian slaves. 

Which drudgery we disdained ; and concluded to beat our 
masters. And so we did. Whereupon they sent to the 
viceroy, desiring him to send for us ; for they would not 
longer keep us. 

The viceroy sent for us, and imprisoned us in a house 
in Mexico; from thence to send some of our company into 
Spain. The rest of us stayed in Mexico two years, and 
then were sent prisoners into Spain with the Spanish fleet. 

When we were shipped, the General called our master, 
Robert Barret, and us with him into his cabin ; and asked 
us, If we would fight against Englishmen, if we met them? 

We said. That we would not fight against our crown. 
But if we met with any other, we would do what we were 
able. 

He said. That if we had said otherwise he would not 
have believed us ; and for that we should be the better used, 
and have allowance as other men had. And he gave a 
charge to every one of us, according to our knowledge. 



A Voyage to the West Indies 95 

Robert Barret was placed with the pilot, I was put in the 
gunner's room, William Cause with the boatswain, John 
Bear with the quartermaster, Edward Rider and Geffrey 
Giles with the ordinary mariners, and Richard, the master's 
boy, attended on him and the pilot. 

We departed from the port of St. John de Ullua with all 
the fleet of Spain. 

On St. James' day we made rockets, wheels, and other 
fireworks to make pastime that night, as is the custom of 
the Spaniards. 

When we came unto the land, our master conferred with 
us to take the pinnace one night, to escape the danger and 
bondage that we were going into. Whereunto we agreed. 
None had any pinnace astern but one ship, which gave great 
courage to our enterprise. We prepared a bag of bread 
and a botijo of water, which would have served us nine 
days, and provided ourselves to go. Our master borrowed 
a small compass of the master-gunner of the ship. 

Who lent it to him, but suspected his intent, and made the 
General aware of it. 

He called R. Barret, commanding his head to be 'put in 
the stocks, and a great pair of iron bolts on his legs. And 
the rest of us to be set in the stocks by the legs. Then he 
willed a cannon to be shot off, and he sent the pinnace for 
the admiral and all the captains and pilots to come aboard. 
He commanded the mainmast to be struck down, and to put 
two pulleys, on every yardarm one. The hangman was 
called, and he swore by the King that he would hang us. 

The Admiral, Diego Flores de Valdes, asked him. Where- 
fore? 

He said, That we had determined to rise in the night with 
the pinnace, and with a ball of firework to set the ship on 



96 Explorers and Settlers 

fire, and go our ways. " Therefore," said he, *' I will have 
you, the captains, masters, and pilots, to set your hand 
unto that. For I swear by the King, that I will hang 
them ! " 

Diego de Flores answered, *' I, nor the captains, masters, 
nor pilots, will not set our hands to that! " For he said, 
If he had been prisoner, as we were, he would have done 
the like himself. He counseled him to keep us fast in 
prison till he came into Spain. For he would not have it 
said that, in such a fleet as that was, six men and a boy 
should take the pinnace and go away. 

And so the Admiral returned to his ship again. 

When he was gone, the General came to the mainmast 
to us, and swore by the King that we should not come out 
of the stocks till we came into Spain. Sixteen days after, 
we came over the bar of San Lucar. 

[After twenty-one years in Spain, much of the time in 
the galleys, he " made means to come away in a fly-boat " 
belonging to a Fleming.] 

In the month of October last, at sea, off the southernmost 
cape, we met an English ship called the Galleon Dudley, 
which took the Fleming and me aboard, and brought me to 
Portsmouth, where they set me on land the second day of 
December last, 1590. From thence I was sent by the lieuten- 
ant of Portsmouth, with letters to the Right Honorable the 
Earl of Sussex, who commanded his secretary to take my 
name and examination, how long I had been out of Eng- 
land, and with whom I went. 

And on Christmas eve I took my leave of his Honor, and 
came to Redriff. 



THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 

A DREAM OF PONCE DE LEON [1513] 
I 

A story of Ponce de Leon 
A voyager, withered and old, 

Who came to the sunny Antilles, 
In quest of a country of gold. 

He was wafted past islands of spices, 
As bright as the Emerald seas, 












Landing in Florida. 

Where all the forests seemed singing 
So thick were the birds in the trees ; 

The sea was as clear as the azure. 
And so deep and so pure was the sky 

That the jasper-walled city seemed shining 
Just out of the reach of the eye. 



II 

Then came to De Leon the sailor, 
Some Indian sages who told 
97 



g8 Explorers and Settlers 

Of a region so bright that the waters 

Were sprinkled with islands of gold. 
And they added : " The leafy Bimini, 

A fair land of grottoes and bowers, 
Is there ; and a wonderful fountain 

Upsprings from its gardens of flowers. 
That fountain gives life to the dying, 

And youth to the aged restores ; 
They flourish in beauty eternal, 

Who set but their foot on its shores ! " 
Then answered De Leon, the sailor: 

" I am wrinkled and withered and old : 
I would rather discover that fountain 

Than a country of diamonds and gold." 

Ill 

Away sailed De Leon, the sailor; 

Away with a wonderful glee, 
Till the birds were more rare in the azure, 

The dolphins more rare in the sea. 
Away from the shady Bahamas, 

Over waters no sailor had seen, 
Till again on his wondering vision, 

Rose clustering islands of green. 
Still onward he sped till the breezes 

Were laden with odors, and lo ! 
A country embedded with flowers, 

A country with rivers aglow ! 
More bright than the sunny Antilles, 

More fair than the shady Azores. 
" Thank the Lord," said De Leon, the sailor, 

As he feasted his eye on the shores, 
" We have come to a region, my brothers. 

More lovely than earth, of a truth; 
And here is the life-giving fountain, — 

The beautiful Fountain of Youth." 

IV 

Then landed De Leon, the sailor, 
Unfurled his old banner, and sung ; 



The Fountain of Youth 

But he felt very wrinkled and withered, 

All around was so fresh and so young. 
The palms, ever verdant, were blooming, 

Their blossoms e'en margined the seas ; 
O'er the streams of the forests bright flowers 

Hung deep from the branches of trees. 
Praise the Lord," sang De Leon, the sailor; 

His heart was with rapture aflame 
And he said : " Be the name of this region 

By Florida given to fame. 
'T is a fair, a delectable country, 

More lovely than earth, of a truth ; 
I soon shall partake of the fountain, — 

The beautiful Fountain of Youth!" 



But wandered De Leon, the sailor. 

In search of that fountain in vain; 
No waters were there to restore him 

To freshness and beauty again. 
And his anchor he lifted, and murmured. 

As the tears gathered fast in his eye, 
' I must leave this fair land of the flowers. 

Go back o'er the ocean and die." 
Then back by the dreary Tortugas, 

And back by the shady Azores, 
He was borne on the storm-smitten waters 

To the calm of his own native shores. 
And that he grew older and older, 

His footsteps enfeebled gave proof, 
Still he thirsted in dreams for the fountain. 

The beautiful Fountain of Youth. 

VI 

One day the old sailor lay dying 
On the shores of a tropical isle, 

And his heart was enkindled with rapture. 
And his face lighted up with a smile. 

He thought of the sunny Antilles, 
He thought of the shady Azores, 



99 



100 Explorers and Settlers 

He thought of the dreamy Bahamas, 

He thought of fair Florida's shores. 
And when in his mind he passed over 

His wonderful travels of old, 
He thought of the heavenly country, 

Of the city of jasper and gold. 
" Thank the Lord," said De Leon, the sailor, 

" Thank the Lord for the light of the truth, 
I am now approaching the fountain, 

The beautiful Fountain of Youth." 



vn 



The cabin was silent : at twilight 

They heard the birds singing a psalm. 
And the wind of the ocean, low sighing 

Through the groves of the orange and palm. 
The sailor lay still on his pallet, 

'Neath the low-hanging vines of the roof ; 
His soul had gone forth to discover 
The beautiful Fountain of Youth. 

Hezekiah Butterworth. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAVELER 
By Charles F. Lummis 

The achievements of the explorer are among the most im- 
portant, as they are among the most fascinating, of human 
heroisms. The quahties of mind and body necessary to his 
task are rare and admirable. He should have many sides 
and be strong in each — the rounded man that nature meant 
man to be. His body need not be as strong as Samson's, 
nor his mind Napoleon's, nor his heart the most fully de- 
veloped heart on earth; but mind, heart, and body he 
needs, and each in the measure of a strong man. There 
is hardly another calling in which every muscle, so to 
speak, of his threefold nature will be more constantly or 
more evenly called into play. 

Exploration, intended or involuntary, has achieved not 
only great results to civilization, but in the doing has scored 
some of the highest feats of human heroism. America in 
particular, perhaps, has been the field of great and re- 
markable journeys; but the two men who made the most 
astounding journeys in America — and probably in all his- 
tory — are still almost unheard of among us. They are 
heroes whose names are as Greek to the vast majority of 
Americans, albeit they are men in whom Americans par- 
ticularly should take deep and admiring interest. They 
were Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the first American 
traveler ; and Andres Docampo, the man who walked farther 
than any one. 

lOI 



102 Explorers and Settlers 

In a world so big and old and full of great deeds as this, 
it is extremely difficult to say of any one man, " He was 
the greatest " this or that; and even in the matter of jour- 
neys there have been bewilderingly many great ones — 
of the most wonderful of which we hear least. As ex- 
plorers we cannot give Vaca and Docampo great rank; 
though the latter's explorations were not contemptible, and 
Vaca's were of great importance. But as physical achieve- 
ments the journeys of these neglected heroes can safely 
be said to be without parallel. They were the most won- 
derful walks ever made by man. Both men made their 
records in America, and each made most of his journey 
in what is now the United States. 

Cabeza de Vaca was the first European really to penetrate 
the then "Dark Continent" of North America; by cen- 
turies the first to cross the continent. His nine years of 
wandering on foot, unarmed, naked, starving, among wild 
beasts and wilder men, with no more company than three as 
ill-fated comrades, gave the world its first glimpse of the 
United States inland, and led to some of the most stirring 
and important achievements connected with its early his- 
tory. Nearly a century before the Pilgrim Fathers planted 
their noble commonwealth on the edge of Massachusetts; 
seventy-five years before the first English settlement was 
made in the New World; and more than a generation be- 
fore there was a single Caucasian settler of any blood within 
our area, Vaca and his gaunt followers had trudged across 
this unknown land. 

It is a long way back to those days. Henry VIII was 
then king of England, and many rulers have since occupied 
that throne. Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, was not born 
when Vaca started on his appalling journey, and did not 



The First American Traveler 103 

begin to reign until twenty years after he had ended it. 
It was fifty years before the birth of Captain John Smith, 
the founder of Virginia; a generation before the birth of 
Shakspere, and two and a half generations before Milton. 
Henry Hudson, the famous explorer for whom one of our 
chief rivers is named, was not yet born. Columbus him- 
self had been dead less than twenty-five years; and the con- 
queror of Mexico had seventeen yet to live. It was sixty 
years before the world had even heard of such a thing as 
a newspaper ; and the best geographers still thought it possi- 
ble to sail through America to Asia. There was not a 
white man in North America above the middle of Mexico ; 
nor had one ever gone two hundred miles inland in this 
continental wilderness, of which the world knew almost 
less than we know now of the moon. 

The name of Cabeza de Vaca may seem to us a curious 
one. It means " Head of a Cow." But this quaint family 
name was an honorable one in Spain, and had a brave win- 
ning; it was earned at the battle of Naves de Tolosa in the 
thirteenth century, one of the decisive engagements of all 
those centuries of war with the Moors. Alvar's grand- 
father was also a man of some note, and conqueror of the 
Canary Islands. 

Alvar was born in Xeres de la Frontera, Spain, toward 
the last of the fifteenth century. Of his early life we 
know little, except that he had already won some considera- 
tion when, in 1527, a mature man, he came to the New 
World. In that year we find him sailing from Spain as 
treasurer and sheriff of the expedition of six hundred men 
with which Pamfilo de Narvaez intended to conquer and 
colonize the Flowery Land, discovered a decade before by 
Ponce de Leon. 



104 



Explorers and Settlers 



They reached Santo Domingo, and thence sailed to Cuba. 
On Good Friday, 1528, ten months after leaving Spain, 
they reached Florida, and landed at what is now named 
Tampa Bay. Taking formal possession of the country for 
Spain, they set out to explore and conquer the unguessed 
wilderness. At Santo Domingo, shipwreck and desertion 




Cabcza de V'aca on tlic March. 



had already cost them heavily, and of the original six 
hundred men there were but three hundred and forty-five 
left. No sooner had they reached Florida than the most 
fearful misfortunes began, and with every day grew worse. 
Food there was almost none; hostile Indians beset them 
on every hand ; and the countless rivers, lakes, and swamps 
made progress difificult and dangerous. The little army was 
fast thinning out under war and starvation, and plots were 
rife among the survivors. They were so enfeebled that 



The First American Traveler 105 

they could not even get back to their vessels. Struggling 
through at last to the nearest point on the coast, far west 
of Tampa Bay, they decided that their only hope was to 
build boats and try to coast to the Spanish settlements in 
Mexico. Five rude boats were made with great toil; and 
the poor wretches turned w^estward along the coast of the 
Gulf. Storms scattered the boats and wrecked one after 
the other. Scores of the haggard adventurers were 
drowned, Narvaez among them ; and scores, dashed upon 
an inhospitable shore, perished by exposure and starvation. 
Of the five boats, three had gone down with all on board; 
of the eighty men who escaped the wreck but fifteen were 
still alive. All their arms and clothing were at the bottom 
of the Gulf. 

The survivors were now on Mai Hado, ^' the Isle of Mis- 
fortune." We know no more of its location than that it 
was west of the mouth of the Mississippi. Their boats 
had crossed that mighty current where it plunges out mio 
the Gulf; and theirs were the first European eyes to see 
even this much of the Father of Waters. The Indians 
of the island, who had no better larder than roots, berries, 
and fish, treated their unfortunate guests as generously as 
was in their power; and Vaca has wTitten gratefully of 
them. 

In the spring, his thirteen surviving companions de- 
termined to escape. Vaca was too sick to walk, and they 
abandoned him to his fate. Two other sick men, Oviedo 
and Alaniz, were also left behind; and the latter soon per- 
ished. It was a pitiable plight in which Vaca now found 
himself. A naked skeleton, scarce able to move, deserted 
by his friends and at the mercy of savages, it is small won- 
der that, as he tells us, his heart sank within him. But he 



106 Explorers and Settlers 

was one of the men who never '' let go." A constant soul 
held up the poor, worn body ; and as the weather grew 
less rigorous, Vaca slowly recovered from his sickness. 

For six years, about, he lived an incomparably lonely life, 
bandied about from tribe to tribe of Indians, sometimes as a 
slave, and sometimes only a despised outcast. Oviedo fled 
from some danger, and he was never heard of afterward; 
Vaca faced it and lived. That his sufferings were almost be- 
yond endurance cannot be doubted. Even when he was not 
the victim of brutal treatment, he was the worthless incum- 
brance, the useless interloper, among poor savages who lived 
the most miserable and precarious lives. That they did not 
kill him speaks well for their humane kindness. 

But Vaca's six years of loneliness and suffering unspeak- 
able had not been in vain. For he had acquired, unknow- 
ingly, the key to safety; and amid all those horrors, and 
without dreaming of its significance, he had stumbled upon 
the very strange and interesting clue which was to save 
him and four of the deserters who returned. Without it, 
all four would have perished in the wilderness, and the 
world would never have known their end. 

It was an important fact that Vaca was utterly useless to 
the Indians. He could not serve them as a warrior; for 
in his wasted condition the bow was more than he could 
master. As a hunter he was equally unavailable; for, as 
he himself says, '' it was impossible for him to trail ani- 
mals." Assistance in carrying water or fuel or anything 
of the sort was impossible, for he was a man, and his In- 
dian neighbors could not let a man do woman's work. So, 
among these starveling nomads, this man who could not 
help but must be fed was a real burden ; and the only won- 
der is that they did not kill him. 



The First American Traveler 107 

Under these circumstances, Vaca began to wander about. 
His indifferent captors paid little attention, and by degrees 
he got to making long trips north, and up and down the 
coast. In time he began to see a chance for trading, in 
which the Indians encouraged him, glad to find their '' white 
elephant " of some use at last. From the northern tribes 
he brought down skins and alinagre (the red clay so indis- 
pensable to the savages for face-paint), flakes of flint to 
make arrow-heads, hard reeds for the shafts, and tassels 
of deer-hair dyed red. These things he readily exchanged 
among the coast tribes for shells and shell-beads, and the 
like — which, in turn, were in demand among his northern 
customers. 

On account of their constant wars, the Indians could not 
venture outside their own range; so this safe go-between 
trader was a convenience which they encouraged. So far 
as he was concerned, though the life was still one of great 
suffering, he was constantly gaining knowledge which would 
be useful to him in his never- forgotten plan of gettmg 
back to the world. These lonely trading expeditions of 
his covered thousands of miles on foot through the 
trackless wilderness; and through them his aggregate 
wanderings were much greater than those of any of the 
others. 

It was during these long and awful tramps that Cabeza 
de Vaca had one particularly interesting experience. He 
was the first European who saw the great American bison, 
the buffalo, — which has become practically extinct in the 
last decade, but once roamed the plains in vast hordes, — 
and first by many years. He saw them and ate their meat 
in the Red River country of Texas, and has left us a de- 
scription of the '' hunchback cows." None of his compan- 



lo8 Explorers and Settlers 

ions ever saw one, for in their subsequent journey together 
the four Spaniards passed south of the buffalo-country. 

Meanwhile, as I have noted, the forlorn and naked trader 
had had the duties of a doctor forced upon him. He did 
not understand what this involuntary profession might do 
for him — he was simply pushed into it at first, and fol- 
lowed it not from choice, but to keep from having trouble. 
He was " good for nothing but to be a medicine-man." 
He had learned the peculiar treatment of the aboriginal 
wizards, though not their fundamental ideas. The Indians 
still look upon sickness as a " being possessed " ; and their 
idea of doctoring is not so much to cure as to exorcise the 
bad spirits which cause it. 

When the four wanderers at last came together after 
their long separation, — in which all had suffered untold 
horrors, — Vaca had then, though still unguessed, the key 
of hope. Their first plan was to escape from their present 
captors. It took ten months to effect it, and meantime 
their distress was great — as it had been constantly for so 
many years. At times they lived on a daily ration of two 
handfuls of wild peas and little water. 

At last, in August, 1535, the four sufferers escaped to a 
tribe called the Avavares. But now a new career began 
to open to them. That his companions might not be as 
useless as he had been, Cabeza de Vaca had instructed them 
in the " arts " of Indian medicine-men; and all four began 
to put their new and strange profession into practice. 

Trudging on from tribe to tribe, painfully and slowly, the 
white medicine-men crossed Texas and came close to our 
present New Mexico. It has long been reiterated by the 
historians that they entered New Mexico and got even as 
far north as where Santa Fe now is. But modern scien- 



The First American Traveler 109 

tific research has absolutely proved that they went on from 
Texas through Chihuahua and Sonora and never saw an 
inch of New Mexico. 

With each new tribe the Spaniards paused awhile to heal 
the sick. Everywhere they were treated with the greatest 
kindness their poor hosts could give, and with religious 
awe. Their progress is a very valuable object-lesson, show- 
ing just how some Indian myths are formed — first, the 
successful medicine-man, who at his death or departure is 
remembered as hero, then as demigod, then as divinity. 

One day they met an Indian wearing upon his necklace 
the buckle of a sword-belt and a horseshoe nail; and their 
hearts beat high at this first sign, in all their eight years' 
wandering, of the nearness of Europeans. The Indian told 
them that men with beards like their own had come from 
the sky and made war upon his people. 

The Spaniards were now entering Sinaloa, and found 
themselves in a fertile land of flowing streams. The In- 
dians were in mortal fear, for two brutes of a class who 
were very rare among the Spanish conquerors (they were, 
I am glad to say, punished for their violation of the strict 
laws of Spain) were then trying to catch slaves. The sol- 
diers had just left; but Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico, 
with eleven Indians, hurried forward on their trail, and next 
day overtook four Spaniards, who led them to their rascally 
captain, Diego de Alcaraz. It was long before that officer 
could believe the wondrous story told by the naked, torn, 
shaggy, wild man ; but at last his coldness was thawed, and 
he gave a certificate of the date, and of the condition in 
which Vaca had come to him, and then sent back for Do- 
rantes and Castillo. Five days later these arrived, accom- 
panied by several hundred Indians. 



no Explorers and Settlers 

After a short rest the wanderers left for Compostela, 
then the chief town of the province of New GaHcia — itself 
a small journey of three hundred miles through a land 
swarming with hostile savages. At last, they reached the 
city of Mexico in safety, and were received with great 
honor. But they found that it was long before they could 
accustom themselves to eating the food and wearing the 
clothing of civilized people. 

The chief hero never came back to North America, but 
we hear of Dorantes as being there the following year. 
Their report of what they saw, and of the stranger coun- 
tries to the north of which they had heard, had already set 
on foot the remarkable expeditions which resulted in the 
discovery of Arizona, New Mexico, our Indian Territory, 
Kansas, and Colorado, and brought about the building of 
the first European towns in the area of the United States. 

Cabeza de Vaca, as a reward for his then unparalleled 
walk of much more than ten thousand miles in the unknown 
land, was made Governor of Paraguay in 1540. He was 
not qualified for the place, however, and returned in dis- 
grace. That circumstances were rather to blame than he, 
however, is indicated by the fact that he was restored to 
favor and received a pension of two thousand ducats. He 
died in Seville at a good old age. 




The Spaniards Hearing the coast of Florida. 



IN EARLY MEXICO 
By J. T. Trowbridge 

When the Spaniards, under the famous Cortes, came to 
Mexico in 15 19, they found the country inhabited by a peo- 
ple very different from our North American Indians. 

They had cities, palaces and temples, which astonished 
the Europeans by their riches and magnificence; and they 
were governed by monarchs who lived in Oriental luxury. 
In some of the arts of civilization they excelled the Span- 
iards themselves. They had a knowledge of astronomy, 
and Cortes found their method of reckoning time — mak- 
ing allowance for the fraction of a day over the three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days in each year — more exact than the 
Christian calendar. They had vast farm-lands watered by 
artificial means; and their beautiful gardens gave Europe a 
lesson in horticulture. On the lakes about the city of 
Mexico were floating gardens, formed of rafts covered with 
rich mud from the lake bottom, and glowing with the luxu- 
riant flowers and fruits of the tropics, — the wonder of the 
Spaniards. 

They were skilled in the arts of war, as well as in those 
of peace. They had bows and arrows, and lances, and 
other weapons ; and their generals knew something of strata- 
gem, and of the wielding of great armies. But they knew 
nothing of powder or guns, and they had no horses. So, 
when the Spaniards came with their loud-roaring artillery 
and musketry, and mounted men who seemed a part of the 



112 Explorers and Settlers 

strange beasts they managed, the natives, though they 
fought desperately for a while, gave way at last, and we 
have the romantic story of a numerous and powerful people 
conquered by a mere handful of Spanish troops! 

The most enlightened of all the tribes then inhabiting the 
country were the Tezcucans. Tezcuco, the capital of their 
country, was on ,the eastern side of the lake of Tezcuco, 
near the western side of which was Mexico, the capital of 
the renowned Aztec emperor, Montezuma. The Tezcucans 
and the Aztecs were confederates in war; and, if left to 
themselves, they would probably have become one nation, 
in the course of time extending their sway over all the races 
of North America. But the swelling wave of native civili- 
zation was met by a mightier wave from the Old World, 
and the spirit and power of these extraordinary people 
sank, never to rise again. In the sad and broken-spirited 
Mexican Indians of to-day, one fails to recognize the chil- 
dren of the warlike and industrious tribes whom the Span- 
iards came to plunder and to convert to their own religion. 

About a hundred years before the coming of Cortes, 
lived a Tezcucan prince whose history has a peculiar inter- 
est, from its striking resemblance to that of the Hebrew 
King David. His name is a hard one, but by dividing it 
into double syllables we may master it, — Neza-hual-coyotl. 
In his youth, like David, he was obliged to flee for his life 
from the wrath of a morose monarch who occupied the 
throne, and he met with many romantic adventures and 
hairbreadth escapes. 

Once, when some soldiers came to take him in his own 
house, he vanished in a cloud of incense, such as attendants 
burned before princes, and concealed himself in a sewer un- 
til his enemies were gone. He fled to the mountains, where 



In Early Mexico I13 

he slept in caves and thickets, and hved on wild fruits, oc- 
casionally showing himself in the cottages of the poor peo- 
ple, who befriended their prince at the peril of their own 
lives. Once, when closely pursued, passing a girl who was 
reaping in a field, he begged her to cover him from sight 
with the stalks of grain she was cutting; she did so, and 
when his enemies came up, directed the pursuit into a false 
path. At another time, he took refuge with some soldiers 
who were friendly to him, and who covered him with a war- 
drum, about which they were dancing. No bribe could in- 
duce his faithful people to betray him. 

"Would you not deliver up your prince if he came in 
your way?" he once asked a young country- fellow, to 
whom his person was unknown. 

" Never ! " replied the peasant. 

" Not for a fair lady's hand and a great fortune? " said 
the prince. 

" Not for all the world ! " was the answer. 

The prince, who was rightful heir to the throne, grew 
every day in the favor of the people, and at last he found 
himself at the head of an army, while the bad king was 
more and more detested. A battle was fought, the usurper's 
forces routed, and he was afterward slain. The prince, 
who so lately fled for his life, was now proclaimed king. 

He at once set about reforming abuses, and making wise 
laws for his kingdom. He established a society devoted 
to the encouragement of science and art. He gave prizes 
for the best literary compositions (for these people had a 
sort of picture-writing), and he was himself a poet, like 
King David. His poems, some of which have been pre- 
served and translated, were generally of a religious charac- 
ter. His favorite themes were the vanity of human great- 



114 Explorers and Settlers 

ness, praise of the Unknown God, and the blessings of the 
future Hfe for such as do good in this. The Tezcucans, Hke 
the Aztecs, were idolators, who indulged in the horrid rites 
of human sacrifice to their awful deities; but this wise and 
good king detested such things, and endeavored to wean 
his people from them, declaring, like David, that, above all 
idols, and over all men, ruled an unseen Spirit, who was 
the one God. 

The king used to disguise himself, and go about among 
his people, in order to learn who were happy, how his laws 
were administered, and what was thought of his govern- 
ment. On one such occasion, he fell in with a boy gathering 
sticks in a field. 

'' Why don't you go into yonder forest, where you will 
find plenty of wood? " asked the disguised monarch. 

'' Ah ! " cried the boy, '' that forest belongs to the king, 
and he would have me killed if I should take his wood; for 
that is the law." 

" Is he so hard a man as that ? " 

*' Aye, that he is, — a very hard man, indeed, who denies 
his people what God has given them ! " 

" It is a bad law," said the king; " and I advise you not 
to mind it. Come, there is no one here to see you ; go into 
the forest, and help yourself to sticks." 

" Not I ! " exclaimed the boy. 

" You are afraid someone will come and find you? But 
I will keep watch for you," urged the king. 

"Will you take the punishment in my place, if I chance 
to get caught? No, no!" cried the boy, shrewdly shaking 
his head, " I should risk my life if I took the king's wood." 

'' But I tell you it will be no risk," said the king. " I 
will protect you ; go and get some wood." 



In Early Mexico 115 

Upon that the boy turned and looked him boldly in the 
face. 

" I believe you are a traitor," he cried, — " an enemy of 
the king ! or else you want to get me into trouble. But you 
can't. I know how to take care of myself; and I shall 
show respect to the laws, though they are bad." 

The boy went on gathering sticks, and in the evening 
went home with his load of fuel. 

The next day, his parents were astonished to receive a 
summons to appear with their son before the king. As they 
went tremblingly into his presence, the boy recognized the 
man with whom he had talked the day before, and he turned 
deadly pale. 

"If that be the king," he said, " then we are no better 
than dead folks, all ! " 

But the king descended from his throne, and smilingly 
said : 

" Come here, my son ! Come here, good people both ! 
Fear nothing. I met this lad in the fields yesterday, and 
tried to persuade him to disobey the law. But I found him 
proof against all temptation. So I sent for you, good 
people, to tell you what a true and honest son you have, and 
that the law is to be changed, so that poor people can go 
anywhere into the king's forests, and gather the wood they 
find on the ground." 

He then dismissed the lad and his parents with hand- 
some presents, which made them rich for the remainder of 
their lives. 



HOW THE STONE-AGE CHILDREN PLAYED 
By Charles C. Abbott 

Not long since I wandered along a pretty brook that rip- 
pled through a narrow valley. I was on the lookout for 
whatever birds might be wandering that way, but saw noth- 
ing of special interest. So, to while away the time, I com- 
menced geologizing; and, as I plodded along my lonely 
way, I saw everywhere traces of an older time, when the 
sparkling rivulet that now only harbors pretty salamanders 
was a deep creek, tenanted by many of our larger fishes. 

How fast the earth from the valley's slopes may have 
been loosened by frost and washed by freshet, and carried 
down to fill up the old bed of the stream, we will not stop to 
inquire; for other traces of this older time were also met 
with here. As I turned over the loose earth by the brook- 
side, and gathered here and there a pretty pebble, I chanced 
upon a little arrow-point. 

Whoever has made a collection, be It of postage stamps 
or birds' eggs, knows full well how securing one coveted 
specimen but increases eagerness for others; and so was it 
with me that pleasant afternoon. Just one pretty arrow- 
point cured me of my laziness, banished every trace of 
fatigue, and filled me with the interest of eager search; 
and I dug and sifted and washed the sandy soil for yards 
along the brook-side, until I had gathered at least a score 

ii6 



How the Stone-Age Children Played 117 




The hatchet. 



of curious relics of the long-departed red men, or rather 
of the games and sports and pastimes of the red men's 
hardy and active children. 

For centuries be- 
fore Columbus dis- 
covered San Salva- 
dor, the red men 
(or Indians, as they 
are usually called) 
roamed over all the 
great continent of 
North America, and 
having no knowledge of Iron as a metal, they were forced 
to make of stone or bone all their weapons, hunting and 
household implements. From this fact they are called, 

when referring to 
those early times, a 
stone-age people, 
and so, of course, 
the boys and girls 
of that time were 
stone-age children. 
But it is not to 
be supposed that, 
because the chil- 
dren of savages, 
they were alto- 
gether unlike the 
Arrow-heads. youngsters of to- 

day. In one respect, at least, they were quite the same — 
they were very fond of play. 

Their play, however, was not like the games of to-day, 




ii8 



Explorers and Settlers 




as you may see by the pictures of their toys. We might, 
perhaps, call the principal game of the boys '' Playing 
Man," for the little stone implements, here pictured, are 
only miniatures of the great stone axes and long spear- 
points of their fathers. 

In one particular these old-time children were really in 

advance of the 
youngsters of 
z\ to-day ; they not 
only did, in 
play, what their 
Flint knife. parents did in 

earnest, but they realized, in part, the results of their playful 
labor. A good old Moravian missionary says : " Little 
boys are frequently seen wading in shallow brooks, shooting 
small fishes with their bows and arrows." Going a-fishing, 
then, as now, was good fun ; but to shoot fishes with a bow 
and arrow is not an easy thing to do, and this is one way 
these stone-age children played, and played to better advan- 
tage than most of my young readers can. 

Among the stone-age children's toys that I gathered that 
afternoon, were those of which we have pictures. The 
first is a very pretty stone hatchet, very carefully shaped, 
and still quite sharp. It has been worked out from a 
porphyry pebble, and in every way, except size, it is the 
same as hundreds that still are to be found lying about 
the fields. 

No red man would ever deign to use such an insignifi- 
cant-looking ax, and so we must suppose it to have been a 
toy hatchet for some little fellow that chopped away at 
saplings, or, perhaps, knocked over some poor squirrel or 
rabbit; for our good old Moravian friend, the missionary, 



How the Stone-Age Children Played 119 

also tells us that " the boys learn to climb trees when 
very young, both to catch birds and to exercise their sight, 
which, by this method, is rendered so quick that in hunting 
they see objects at an amazing distance." Their play, 
then, became an excellent schooling for them; and if they 
did nothing but play it was not a loss of time. 

The five little arrow-points figured in the second picture 
are among those I found in the valley. The ax was not 
far away, and both it and they may have belonged to the 
same bold and active young hunter. All of these arrow- 
points are very neatly made. 

The same missionary tells us that these young red men 
of the forest " exercise themselves very early with bows 
and arrows, and in shooting at a mark. As they grow 
up, they acquire a remarkable dexterity in shooting birds, 
squirrels, and small game." 

Every boy remembers his first penknife, and, whether 
it had one or three blades, was proud enough of it ; but 
how different the fortune of the stone-age children, in this 
matter of a pocketknife! In the third picture is shown 
a piece of flint that was doubtless chipped into this shape 
that it might be used as a knife. 

I have found scores of such knives in the fields that ex- 
tend along the little valley, and a few came to light in my 
search that afternoon in the brook-side sands and gravel. 
So, if this chipped flint is a knife, then, as in modern times, 
the children were whittlers. 

Of course, our boys nowadays would be puzzled to cut 
a willow whistle or mend the baby's go-cart with such a 
knife as this; but still, it will not do to despise stone 
cutlery. The big canoe at the Centennial, that took up 
30 much room in the Government Building, — a boat sixty 



120 



Explorers and Settlers 



feet long, — was made in quite recent times, and only stone 
knives and hatchets were used in the process. 

I found too, in that afternoon walk, some curiously 
shaped splinters of jasper, which at first did not seem 
very well adapted to any purpose; and yet, although mere 
fragments, they had every appearance of having been pur- 
posely shaped, and not of accidental resemblances to a hook 
or sickle blade. When I got home, I read that perfect 
specimens, mine being certainly pieces of the same form, 
had been found away off in Norway; and Professor Nils- 
son, who has carefully studied the whole subject, says they 
are fish-hooks. 

Instead of my broken ones, we have in the fourth illus- 
tration some uninjured specimens of these fish-hooks from 

Norway. Two are made of 
flint, the largest one being 
bone ; and hooks of exactly 
the same patterns really have 
been found within half a 
mile of the little valley I worked in that 
afternoon. 

The fish-hooks shown in our picture 
have been thought to be best adapted for, 
and really used in, capturing codfish in 
salt water, and perch and pike in inland 
lakes. The broken hooks I found were 
fully as large ; and so the little brook that 
now ripples down the valley, when a large stream, must 
have had a good many big fishes in it, or the stone-age 
fishermen would not have brought their fishing-hooks, and 
have lost them, along this remnant of a larger stream. 
But it must not be supposed that only children in this 






Fish-hooks. 



How the Stone-Age Children Played 121 

bygone era did the fishing for their tribe. Just as the 
men captured the larger game, so they took the bigger 
fishes; but it is scarcely probable that the boys who waded 
the little brooks with bows and arrows would remain con- 
tent with that, and, long before they were men, doubtless 
they were adepts in catching the more valuable fishes that 
abounded, in Indian times, in all our rivers. 

So, fishing, I think, was another w^ay in which the stone- 
age children played. 




Copy in black and white of a color-drawing by an Indian boy. 



DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA 



(From ''the famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake called 'The 
greatest of Elizabethan Seamen ' into the South Sea, and there- 
hence about the whole globe of the earth, begun in the year of 
our Lord, 1577.") 

The fifth day of June, being in 43 degrees towards the 
pole Arctic, we found the air so cold that our men, being 
grievously pinched with the same, 
complained of the extremity there- 
of; and the further we went, the more 
the cold increased upon us. Where- 
upon we thought it best for that time 
to seek the land, and did so, finding 
it not mountainous, but low plain 
land, till we came within 38 degrees 
towards the Line. In which height 
it pleased God to send us into a fair 
and good bay, w^ith a good wind to 
enter the same. 
In this bay we anchored, and the people of the country, 
having their houses close by the water's side, showed them- 
selves unto us, and sent a present to our general. 

When they came unto us, they greatly w^ondered at the 
things that we brought, but our general (according to his 
natural and accustomed humanity) courteously entreated 
them, and liberally bestowed on them necessary things to 
cover their nakedness, whereupon they supposed us to be 

122 




Sir Francis Drake. 



Drake In California 123 

gods, and would not be persuaded to the contrary. The 
presents which they sent to our general were feathers and 
cauls of network. 

Their houses are digged round about with earth, and 
have from the uttermost brims of the circle clifts of wood 
set upon them, joining close together at the top like a spire 
steeple, which by reason of that closeness are very warm. 

Their beds is the ground with rushes strewed on it, and 
lying about the house, have the fire in the midst. The 
men go naked, the women take bulrushes and comb them 
after the manner of hemp, and thereof make their loose 
garments, which being knit about their middles, hang down 
about their hips, having also about their shoulders a skin 
of deer with the hair upon it. These women are very 
obedient and serviceable to their husbands. 

After they departed from us, they came and visited us 
the second time and brought with them feathers and bags 
of tobacco for presents. And when they came to the top 
of the hill (at the bottom whereof we had pitched our 
tents) they stayed themselves, where one appointed for 
speaker wearied himself with making a long oration, which 
done, they left their bows upon the hill, and came down 
with their presents. 

In the meantime the women, remaining on the hill, tor- 
mented themselves lamentably, tearing their flesh from their 
cheeks, whereby we perceived that they were about a sac- 
rifice. In the meantime our general with his company 
went to prayer and to reading of the Scriptures, at which 
exercise they were attentive, and seemed greatly to be af- 
fected with it. But when they were come unto us, they 
restored again unto us those things which before we be- 
stowed upon them. 



SECTION II 
THE SETTLERS 



LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

The breaking waves dashed high 

On the stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods, against a stormy sky, 

Their giant branches tossed; 

And the heavy night hung dark 

The hihs and waters o'er. 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 

ilc ;(: ^ ^ jjc ^ :)c 

There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that pilgrim band ; 
Why have they come to wither there, 

Away from their childhood's land? 

There was woman's fearless eye, 

Lit by her deep love's truth ; 
There was manhood's brow, serenely high. 

And the fiery heart of youth. 

What sought they thus afar? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? — 

They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 

Aye, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod ! 
They have left unstained what there they found — 

Freedom to worship God. 

Felicia Remans. 



THE ENGLAND OF THE PILGRIMS 
By Tudor Jenks 

Miles Standish remains in many respects an unexplained 
figure among the founders of New England. While he 
was faithful, loyal, zealous, a brave soldier and a true com- 
rade to his fellow-voyagers in the Mayflozver there is noth- 
ing to connect him with their religious views or practices. 

He came of excellent family, one of those families that 
made the strength of the England of Elizabeth; and, trans- 
planted by the folly of King James, that same strength 
has become the bone and sinew of our own country, at- 
tracting to itself like sound material, as healthy tissue 
draws from the blood the elements necessary to its growth 
and nourishment. England's loss was our great gain. 

Had we been able to make a tour through England at 
any time during the early life of Miles Standish, we would 
have been surprised by many things, great and small. But 
chiefly, perhaps, we would have been impressed by the 
contrast between the lives of the nobles and of the com- 
mon people, between rich and poor. The rich subjects 
of Elizabeth were restrained by no fashion o£ simplicity. 
They tried to outdo one another in gorgeous attire. Silks 
and satins, laces, gold and silver, jewels, were worn by 
men as well as women, and the greatest of the Queen's 
statesmen, warriors, merchants tricked themselves out in 
costumes so gay that a modern dandy would blush to wear 
one as gaudy at a masquerade. The great Sir Walter Raleigh 

127 



128 



Explorers and Settlers 




wore upon his shoes gems worth thousands of pounds, and 
his portrait shows hanging from his ears great pearl ear- 
rings that would to-day seem ostenta- 
tious in a barbarian queen. Em- 
broideries, starched ruffs, gold chains, 
stuffed doublets, fanciful buttons — 
all were eagerly sought by men of 
weight and serious lives, and Queen 
Elizabeth went bedizened and painted 
like an ornament for a Christmas tree. 
As for people of the middle class, 
the less prosperous merchants, the sea- 
captains, the shopkeepers, in easy cir- 
cumstances, they of course followed at 
a distance the lead of the nobles, being 
sometimes restrained by law from the 
use of certain rich materials reserved 
for the higher classes. 

The same extravagance of taste ruled in all the affairs 
of those who could afford to do as they pleased. Great 
men traveled surrounded by bands of retainers and foot- 
men ; they filled their luxurious homes with attendants, and 
all their affairs were carried on with ostentatious extrava- 
gance and display. 

The poor, on the contrary, were as far below modern 
ideas of comfort as the nobles were beyond modern, ideas 
of good taste. Their houses were scarcely furnished. 
They slept upon straw ticks at best, wore their clothes 
threadbare, had little variety of food, and had no more 
comfort than is to be found now in the roughest settlement 
on the outskirts of civilization. 

There were, of course, only open fires of wood for 



The Standish 
monument. 



The England of the Pilgrims 129 

heating the poorer class of dwelHngs, and winter was a 
time of severe suffering in city or town. Windows were 
made small except in the best dwellings or public buildings, 
for glass was a luxury. Panes of horn, lattice-work, or 
shutters were the means for protecting these openings, and 
heavy clothing was the main reliance for warmth. Vege- 
tables were not eaten so commonly as now, the usual food 
being meat and bread, the meat in winter being smoked 
or salted to preserve it. Few people took more than the 
lightest of meals on rising — eggs, or a bit of bread with 
a drink of ale, perhaps — and there were two main meals 
a day. Dinner was taken early in the day, and there was a 
supper toward evening, both being accompanied by the 
usual drinks of ale or wine, and being eaten in silence, ac- 
cording to some authorities, though one may doubt this. 
Forks were unknown except as curiosities, the knife, a bit 
of bread, or a napkin serving all purposes. 

Indoor life was marked by an elaborate ceremony and 
formality among the rich and fashionable, by a roughness 
and untidiness shocking to modern ideas among the com- 
mon people. Outdoor life showed a similar difference be- 
tween the classes. Among the nobles were still existing 
the sports and amusements that had come from the feudal 
days, the pursuits of the knights and ladies in the times of 
chivalry. There were jousts and tournaments, horse-rid- 
ing for pleasure or display, hawking, picnicking outings 
on the rivers or in the fields. For the gentlemen of the 
time there were the theaters, but the playhouses were not 
yet considered fit for the presence of ladies. Those ladies 
who went to witness the rough dramas of the day went 
masked, or were such as cared little for their reputations. 
Yet there were entertainments given in the churches or 
9 



130 Explorers and Settlers 

the public places, plays of an instructive or moral nature, 
and these were witnessed by people of all classes. 

Cock-fighting, bull-baiting and bear-baiting by dogs, the 
drawing of badgers, and similar brutalities were very pop- 
ular among the coarser people, and proved that they were 
not yet so civilized as to be pained by the sight of suffering. 

What enlightenment there was among the uneducated was 
found in the score or more of walled cities, where a certain 
education or training of the faculties came from the hu- 
man intercourse of the throngs of citizens. Once outside 
the walls, one rode over ill-kept roadways that were little 
more than blind trails, through wild districts of unculti- 
vated fields, or threaded even more uncertainly the dim 
forest paths that were dreaded for the real dangers of 
highwaymen or the imagined terrors of superstition. 
There were no ways of transporting goods save pack-ani- 
mals, no regular means of sending any except royal letters. 
Private messages went by haphazard hands, even by those 
of professional beggars, or awaited the fortunate journey 
of a friend. Except for a few inns on frequented roads, 
the traveler had little chance of finding any regular lodg- 
ing; for the great religious houses — with their hospitality 
and their alms-giving — had been destroyed in the days of 
Henry VIII, and their inmates were banished or in hiding 
with some of the old Catholic families. 

Business of all sorts suffered from restraints. Favored 
courtiers held from the crown monopolies to deal in all 
the most profitable commodities, and royal interference was 
invited, wherever there seemed an opportunity for gain in 
restricting trade, by guilds or by companies. 

But these English people had many sterling qualities. 
They were courageous, persistent, frank, kindly, and Hon- 



The England of the Pilgrims 131 

est. They were eager to learn about everything, believed 
in the education of their children, and were intensely pa- 
triotic if not always loyal to a particular government. 
They were industrious and thrifty, and believed in making 
England independent of other nations. 

As to their general intelligence, it was devoted to prac- 
tical matters. The Fine Arts were hardly understood, 
though the nobles were learning that there was such a 
thing as portrait-painting, could appreciate a stately build- 
ing after an architect had constructed it, and a few of 
the more refined Englishmen had seen sculptures and paint- 
ings in Italy and Erance. As to science, it was in its in- 
fancy despite what had been done by such a pioneer as 
Roger Bacon three centuries earlier, and what was to be 
done in the near future by such workers as Gilbert, Francis 
Bacon, and Harvey. Medicine was a mixture of astrology 
and old wives' charms; farming went by rule of thumb; 
mining was a haphazard pursuit; chemistry had yet to es- 
cape from the hands of magicians and fortune-tellers; in 
short, knowledge needed to be sifted from mere guess- 
work, and the art of experiment still lacked system. 

In literature, there is another story to tell. It was the 
age of Shakspere, Spenser, Marlowe, Dekker; and if there 
is a greater literature than theirs, we have yet to see its be- 
ginnings, though we have many forms of writing for which 
they had no need. 

In politics, this was the age of England's rise to power. 
The destruction of Spain's Great Armada took place when 
Standish was about four or five years old ; henceforth the 
English ships ranged the world's waterways as masters. 
The defeat of Spain put England at the head of the na- 
tions, and she held her leadership by lending aid to the 



132 Explorers and Settlers 

Protestants in Europe, and thus keeping the Catholic pow- 
ers busy in their own affairs. Young Englishmen crowded 
into the Netherlands to help the Dutch against the Catholic 
Spanish, or fought with Henry of Navarre, supporting the 
Huguenots against the French Catholics. 

To interfere with the Spanish mines in America, to cap- 
ture richly laden galleons, bringing wealth from the East 
or West Indies, was not only to aid England against her 
strongest foe, but was as profitable as it was patriotic. 

In the Netherlands fought Captain John Smith and 
Miles Standish with many another adventurous, fortune- 
seeking Englishman; and when Smith founded Jamestown 
and Virgirpa, and Miles Standish with sword and musket 
conducted the warfare of the Pilgrims, both were in a way 
fighting against their old enemy Spain, Catholic Spain, 
just as they had done in the ranks of the Dutch armies. 
Both meant to remain subjects of the English sovereign, 
and neither could foresee that they w^ere founding an inde- 
pendent nation. 

We have briefly taken up a few of the main characteris- 
tics of Elizabethan England only that we may not think 
of the Pilgrims and of their soldier associate as being in 
thought or training like those we see about us to-day ; for 
to read of them understandingly, we must remember them 
as Elizabethans. 



ELIZABETHAN BOYS 

By L. H. Sturdevant 

Some to the wars, to try their fortune there, 
Some to discover islands far away. 
Some to the studious universities. 

These were some of the manifest destinies of the EHza- 
bethan boy. What sort of a lad he was who waited im- 
patiently for the time to come when he, too, should go out 
into the world and try his fortune, is not so easy to find out. 
Elizabethan chroniclers do not " waste their time " in talk- 
ing of children ! Even Harrison, who writes at length of 
most things, from the High Court of Parliament to the 
brewing of beer, scarcely mentions boys and girls. He 
might so easily have given us a chatty chapter on them, and 
he so evidently thinks it not worth while, for he " pads " 
his book now and then with far less interesting matter. 

He does complain that the poorer sort of women do not 
suflficiently correct their children, " wherein their husbands 
are also to be blamed," says the old canon, very fairly, and 
" by means whereof very manie of them . . . doo 
oftentimes come to confusion . . . which might have 
proved good members of their commonwealthe and coun- 
trie." This same Harrison whipped his own children con- 
scientiously until his mastiff " essaies to catch the rod in his 
teeth " for the preventing of further punishment, which, 
in his master's opinion, " is not unworthie to be noted." 

That kindly mastiff should be known and remembered 

133 



134 



Explorers and Settlers 



of all children, though the years be so many since, moved 
by his big, loving heart, he interceded for the little Harri- 
sons. 

Certainly lack of discipline was not a failing of the six- 
teenth century, and we know that children were brought up 

austerely and made 
to study hard, 
whether they had 
tutors at home or 
were sent to the 
excellent gram- 
mar-schools of the 
time, where such a 
quantity of Latin 
was crammed in- 
to them, for they 
profited much, and 
were packed off 
to the universities 
early indeed, as 
we shall see. 

They were care- 
fully trained in all 
courtesy of speech 
and hearing, but 
repressed and kept in the background in a way that would 
be little relished by boys of to-day. They were advised 
to be " checked for silence, but never taxed for speech," or, 
as Sir Henry Sidney puts it in a very noble letter to his 
son Philip, then twelve years old, " rather be rebuked of 
light fellows for maiden-like shame facedness, than of your 




Elizabethan Boys 



135 



sad friends for pert boldness. Tell no untruth; no, not in 
trifles," he goes on ; *' there cannot be a greater reproach 
to a gentleman than to be accounted a liar." 

An Elizabethan boy was not likely to be a babbler, and, 
in truth, silence seems to have been much esteemed for all 
men, and Harrison tells us with pride '^ of the 
great silence that is used at the tables of the 
honourable and wiser sort, generallie all over 
the realm." 

The fathers of that time sent their sons 
travel on the Continent when 
they could, for they believed that 
*' home-keeping youth have ever 
homely wits," and that 



*' he can not be a perfect 

man, not being tried and 

tutor'd in the world. So 

let him go," said these 

wise fathers, " practise 

tilts and tournaments, 

hear sweet discourse, converse 

with noblemen " ; he wil 

the more ready to go out in the 

world and take his place with 

other men. ^^ 

The carefully guarded boyhood was soon over, and they 
were marvelously young when they sprang from the quiet 
and seclusion of childhood into the glow and dazzle of that 
wondrous age — those noble Elizabethans who were soldier 
and sailor, courtier and councilor, in turn ; taking time now 
and then to write a mask or a group of sonnets, or to give 




136 Explorers and Settlers 

a helping hand to some struggling genius — to Spenser or 
that promising actor-manager. Will Shakspere; perhaps 
Francis Bacon entered Cambridge at twelve, so did Lord 
Southampton (Shakspere's friend and patron); Spenser 
went at sixteen; Philip Sidney w^as sent to Oxford at thir- 
teen, from there w^ent to Cambridge, traveled and won 
golden opinions from all men before he was eighteen, and 
was sent on an important embassy at twenty-two. George 
Herbert, who was an Elizabethan for the first ten years 
of his life, went to Cambridge at fifteen, " having spent 
much of his childhood in a sweet content under the eye and 
care of his prudent mother, and the tuition of a chaplain or 
tutor." 

The mothers and tutors and grammar-schools did good 
work, whether their pupils were sent to the universities, 
or sped away to the "' military academies of the times " in 
Flanders or Ireland, or took ship and sailed to the Spanish 
Main and fought Spaniards, which was a habit of the 
times. 

What was he like, this boy who was kept so sternly and 
taught so well, and blossomed so early into the flower of 
noble manhood ? There are some heroic boys in Shakspere : 
Arthur, who was beloved even of his jailer; the gallant 
young Prince Edward, and forward little York, who asks 
for his terrible uncle's dagger, and jests with him as one 
who plays w'ith a tiger; and little Mamilius, who is so 
young as to be little more than a plaything, yet who droops 
and dies at his mother's disgrace, so sensitive and honorable 
is his spirit. Were they drawn from English boys as gal- 
lant and daring as they? And little William Page, who 
hung his head, and spoke only when he was spoken to, 
and was of a " good sprag memory," was he some Eliza- 



Elizabethan Boys 137 

bethan school-boy straight from Hfe, or a reminiscence 
maybe of httle WilHam Shakspere, who once went to Strat- 
ford grammar-school, and was of a '' good sprag memory " 
too? 

But boys have studied hard and been trained severely 
before and since. Never has a nobler band stood in the 
forefront of a nation than the men who glorified that time : 
Raleigh, Sidney, the Gilberts, Frobisher, Drake, Grenville, 
Cecil, Walsingham, Bacon; and that other group, Shak- 
spere, Spenser, Jonson, Marlowe — there is no end to the 
names. One would like to know just what made them 
what they were; what futures they planned and dreamed 
through the long days of childhood ; what they heard and 
saw in the talk and example of the men about them — ever 
the thing that most influences a boy. 

It was an age of learning, of increased refinement and 
courtesy. England had never been so prosperous, never ad- 
vanced so rapidly in comfort and even in luxury. Houses 
were built of brick or stone, chimneys abounded, rooms 
w^ere " large and comelie " ; there was '' great profusion 
of tapestrie, Turkey worke, pewter, brasse, fine linen, and 
therto costly cupbords of plate " in gentlemen's houses ; 
nor did it stop there, for " even the inferiour artificers, and 
many farmers " learned to '' garnish their cupbords with 
plate, their joined beds with tapestrie and silke hangings, 
and their tables with carpets and fine naperie," and even a 
poor man had '' three or four feather beds, and a dozzen of 
spoones," and pewter platters in place of wooden ones. 

With all this, and the talk of older men, who looked 
back to the plainness and hardships of an earlier day, no 
doubt the Elizabethan boy thought there never had been 
such times or such a queen, and over his Latin and Greek 



138 Explorers and Settlers 

fretted and chafed for the day when he would be free and 
see it all for himself. 

Those were great, heroic, terrible days — the days of 
the Dutch Republic, of the St. Bartholomew IMassacre, of 
the Spanish Armada. A boy must have heard wonderful 
things in his father's hall, as he stood respectfully by, or 
carried wine to the gentleman who had ridden down from 
London through the mire, bearing the latest news from 
Scotland or France or the Low Countries. Perhaps it was 
a kinsman, an uncle or an elder brother, who had been 
fighting by sea or land, and had come home to nurse a 
wound, and be glorified and honored by the whole house- 
hold and neighborhood. 

How the boy must have admired and envied him, fol- 
lowed him about, waited on him, longed to go back with 
him into that heroic world where men won name and 
fame so quickly! 

England must have been full of such wide-eyed listeners 
by the fire, and there were stories enough for them to hear, 
as the news filtered slowly through the land, from town 
to town and hall to hall, losing nothing in the transit, one 
may be sure: stories from Scotland of the beautiful young 
queen — pretty tales, at first, of her charm, her gaiety, her 
popularity, growing gradually more somber, until men told, 
with a shudder, how^ her husband was slain, — it was said, 
by her own plots, — how her subjects had risen against her 
and imprisoned her on an island in a lake, like a fairy queen, 
how she escaped and fled to their own England, where she 
was fast captive again — and *' Best keep her so," said the 
stern narrators, doubtless ; stories from the Low Countries, 
where some of the best blood in England was fighting — 
stories of persecution and cruelty and wrong, of steadfast 



Elizabethan Boys 



139 



resistance, unflinching bravery, and patriotism, of the 
Spanish Fury, when blood ran hke water in Antwerp 
streets, and no horror of murder and flame and violence 
was spared. 

Did he set his teeth as he listened, that eager boy, as he 
saw his father's face darken, his mother and sisters shiver 




^ 1 



and turn white? No man knew when such a fate might 
come to his own in those days, for the Armada was not 
yet, and the power and cruelty of Spain overshadowed the 
whole world. Did he not resolve to die at his own thresh- 
old, if need were, fighting for his people, and grow a man 
in thought and purpose, in the resolve ? 

Is it any wonder that at sixteen or seventeen, finding 



140 Explorers and Settlers 

books and study no longer endurable, he flung himself into 
the conflict, like Raleigh, who was no sooner entered at 
Oxford than he broke away, and was across the Chan- 
nel fighting for the Huguenots when he was barely 
seventeen ? 

Not all the tales were bloody ones. Think of the boys 
who listened breathless as that wonderful romance of 
Drake's voyage sounded through England like a trumpet- 
call in the autumn of 1580! What a dream of dreams it 
was — to sail around the world, fighting the Spaniard as 
a matter of course whenever one saw him, to struggle with 
wind and wave and danger for three long years, and to 
come triumphantly home at last, with a shipload of gold- 
dust, silver ingots, pearls, emeralds, and diamonds, the hero 
of England and of the world ! Was there a boy in England 
who did not swear that he too would circle the globe and 
bring back treasure untold? 

There were rare adventures toward, only waiting for the 
doing: cruising and fighting, gold and silver, honor and 
fame and glory, for brave men and true; and if God sent 
death instead, who feared it ? Not boys who had been told 
of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who cried out from the deck 
of his ship, the Squirrel, as she disappeared in night and 
storm, " We are as near heaven by sea as by land " ; of that 
immortal speech of Sidney's to the dying soldier, as he 
gave him the water his own lips craved, " Thy need is 
greater than mine " ; of Grenville, who fought fifty Span- 
ish ships with his own Revenge from afternoon till the 
following daybreak, and was carried aboard a Spanish ship 
to die, saying, '' Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful 
and a quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a good 
soldier ought to do, who has fought for his country and 



Elizabethan Boys 141 

* his queen, for honor and religion." Such deaths were tri- 
umphs ; who should fear them ? 

An Elizabethan boy heard much of his queen, of her 
wit, her glory, her wisdom, her love of her people and care 
for their welfare; and he was loyal with the passionate, 
personal loyalty peculiar to the time. He heard much of 
religion, for upon the maintenance of the national religion 

' depended the national existence, home as well as heaven. 
He was brought up in a time when God's interposition and 
help were constantly sought and recognized, not only by 
individuals, but by the nation. The words of his queen 
when she was told of her accession to the throne, '' It is 
the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes," were 
stamped on the gold coinage throughout her reign for him 
to see and remember. '' The Lord blew with his wind and 
they were scattered," was graven on the Armada medal. 
He could no more forget that acknowledgment of God's 
direct protection than he could forget the fearful peril that 
summoned it. Strengthened and clenched by a hundred 
attacks and dangers, his religion could not but be earnest, 
deep-seated, and vital. 

He had a fine spirit, the Elizabethan boy, a somewhat 
turbulent one, if the truth be told, when he was not allowed 
to work it off fighting and privateering, but was kept to 
his book at the university. One hears with pain that he 
and his fellows there " ruffle and roist it out, and for excuse, 
when they are charged with breach of all good order, thinke 
it sufficient to saie that they be gentlemen's sonnes, which 
greeveth manie." The spirit of the people was as high, 
and Rathgeb says " the street boys and apprentices collect 
together in immense crowds, and strike to the right and 
left unmercifully, without regard to persons." Stowe tells 



142 Explorers and Settlers 

us how one Shrove Tuesday " many disorderly persons of 
sundry kindes, amongst whom were very many young boys 
and lads, assembled themselves," and did many riotous acts, 
and even " despite fully used and resisted the Sheriff es of 
London." 

They were not over-gentle authorities that were so de- 
fied. The gallows was the penalty for most offenses then 
and later, and Busino saw a lad of fifteen led to execution 
for stealing a bag of currants. One wonders about the 
very many young boys who should have been safe at home 
at their ages instead of trifling with death in that fashion. 

One would like to know what kind of homes they had 
in that crowded, bustling little London of scarce one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and why their fathers 
and mothers did n't keep them out of riots. It seems as 
if Canon Harrison was right when he blamed their lack of 
discipline. 

Shakspere gives these boys a mention or two : these were 
" the youths that thunder at a play-house, and fight for 
bitten apples " ; these the lads that, when street fights took 
place were likely to be found throwing pebbles at their 
quarrelsome elders, while remaining somewhat in the back- 
ground. The great dramatist has sketched such scenes for 
us in his historical plays. Insubordinate, riotous little lads, 
these — what did they come to later on? Were they food 
for powder in the Low Countries, or jolly mariners, or 
boisterous apprentices ? 

Doubtless they were brave men, and did a man's work 
somewhere, and very likely made good citizens in spite of 
their unruly boyhood, and prospered, and died full of years 
and honors, some three hundred years ago. 

Take him for all in all, we may guess the Elizabethan 



Elizabethan Boys 



143 



boy to have been a fine fellow, and peering back through 
the centuries, we see him, fearless, honorable, faithful, 
learned beyond his years, religious with the deep, personal 




The death of Sir Richard Grenville, commander of the Revenge. 

religion that is won by those who have to fight for their 
faith. When we seek to look into his heart, there seems 
to be no limit to the hopes of such a boy, in such a time, 



144 



Explorers and Settlers 



with the world before him. What shall he do who might 
do anything? Shall he sail the seas with Drake, capture 
the Plate Fleet, loot rich galleons, discover gold-mines in 
Peru? Shall he fight manfully in the Low Countries, 
where was little gold, but much glory and noble compan- 
ionship? Shall he go to the court, win favor with the 
queen, stand a trusted councilor at her right hand, and sway 
the realm? Shall he, being an ambitious boy, choose to do 
all these things in turn, as other men had done, and come 
gloriously home at last to the old hall, where his heart had 
been all the time, and end his days there in honor, like his 
father before him? It was likely enough. Boys lived out 
their dreams in those days oftener than not, in heroic life 
or death, and made great names for themselves in peace 
and war, and were faithful over a few things as over many, 
if need were; wherefore their works do follow them unto 
this day. 




JAMESTOWN 



the cradle of american civilization 

By Thomas Nelson Page 

" It is not a work for every one to plant a Colony ; but when 
a house is built, it is no hard matter to dwell in it." 

John Smith. 

" In kingdoms, the first foundation, or plantation, is of more 
noble dignity and merit than all that followeth." 

Lord Bacon. 

On the morning of the 13th day of May, 1607, James 
I being then King of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ire- 
-|3 land, and Philip III being King of 
^ ] Spain, the American continent, when 
^ the sun rose, belonged absolutely to 
Spain. When the sun set, it belonged 
to England. This was accomplished 
by a little band of sixscore men who, 
*' after long toil and pain," landed 
that day about the hour of four from 
three small ships, the Susan or Sarah 
Constant, the Good Speed, and the 
Discovery, and planted the flag of the Anglo-Saxon on the 
point, which they promptly proceeded to fortify and call 
"James Fort," or ''James Town," after their king. 

All through this century the struggle was going on be- 
tween the two countries and the two peoples, and before it 

145 




The old tower at 
Jamestown. 



146 



Explorers and Settlers 



was three-fourths over, Fame was filHng her trump with 
the names of a score of English captains, many of whom 
survive in history to-day : Hawkins, Drake, the Gilberts, 
Grenville, Frobisher, and, finally, Sir Walter Raleigh. All 

contributed their part ; but 
to him who came to be 
known as '' the Shepherd 
of the Seas," more possi- 
bly than to any other one 
man, Spain * owed the 
wresting of North Amer- 
ica from her grasp. 

England had her well- 
founded claim based on 
John Cabot's discovery, 
in 1497, of the coasts 
north of Florida, of which 
the only record left is the 
entry in the privy purse 
— expenses of Henry VH 
— "£io. to hym who 
found the New land." 
She was now alive to the 
vast importance of the work. But Sir Walter Raleigh was 
the one who inspired and equipped and despatched the fleets 
which opened the way to the settlement of Virginia and of 
America. He gave Virginia her name, and was her first 
Governor. 

Raleigh, half-brother of the gallant Gilberts, when a stu- 
dent at college, was so aroused by the story of the Spanish 
attack on Hawkins's fleet in the harbor of San Juan d'Ulloa, 
that he left the university and went to the Low Countries 




Bust of Captain John 
Major-General R. S. 
Powell. 



Smith, by 
S. Baden- 



Jamestown 147 

to fight the Spaniard. From this time he vowed his hfe to 
warfare with Spain, and though he finally fell a victim to 
her hate, it was not until he had planted on the shores of 
Virginia a colony which was to lead in the work of wrest- 
ing America from her grasp. 

Previous to the final and successful effort, there had been 
several attempts to plant here colonies fitted out by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, which failed. That on Roanoke Island 
might have succeeded had not the Spanish war and the 
peril of the Spanish Armada kept supplies from being sent 
over-seas to their relief. 

The destruction of the Spanish Armada left the seas open 
for England's schemes for colonization to go into effect. 
When, however, Governor White returned to Virginia, his 
little colony had disappeared, and though the one word, 
" Croatan," was carved upon a post, as though to show 
where they had gone, no trace of them was ever found. 
The Roanoke Colony, with little Virginia Dare, the first 
child of English parentage born on this continent, was 
lost in the dim limbo that surrounds the name, " Croatan." 

The blotting out of this colony was a heavy blow even 
to English enterprise, and, as one of the old writers de- 
clared, '' all hopes of Virginia thus abandoned, it lay dead 
and obscured from 1590 to this year, 1602." By this time 
the end of the long war with Spain was in sight, and the 
English public, the English church, and the English gov- 
ernment, once more turned their eyes to that far-off but 
^' sweet, wholesome, and fruitful country." 

Though the efforts made had all failed, the spirit still 
remained. Even the death of the great queen, in 1603, 
was not able to quench it. National pride, religious zeal, 
the spirit of adventure and of cupidity — all combined to 



148 Explorers and Settlers 

make the effort time after time to establish a foothold where 
all previous efforts had failed. 

The cities of England were full of soldiers returned 
from the wars in the Low Countries; the spirit of adven- 
ture was abroad, and much more the hatred of Spain. The 
state reflected it; the. poet sang of it; the writers wrote 
of it. 

Thus, in 1606, despite the failure of all earlier attempts, 
an expedition was ready to set forth to try once more to 
seize the American continent for England and her king and 
people. 

Saturday, December 10(20), 1606, after prayers and re- 
ligious services in the churches, the first expedition to es- 
tablish '' the first Colony in Virginia " sailed from London 
under command of Captain Christopher Newport. 

They numbered sixscore men, of whom fifty-four were 
'' gentlemen," besides fifty odd mariners. No women ac- 
companied them; for the memory of Menendez and the lost 
colony was fresh in all minds. 

It was not until three months later that, haying sailed 
the old route by the West Indies, they sighted the Virginia 
shore. 

On the 26th of April, about four o'clock in the morning, 
they reached the mouth of the Chesapeake, and dropped 
anchor inside the Capes of Virginia. They anchored this 
continent to the Protestant religion and the English civiliza- 
tion. 

Here that night the box containing their sealed orders 
was opened, and they discovered who were to be thence- 
forth their rulers. 

The first President was to be elected by the Council, which 
was composed of gentlemen, the most noted of whom in 



Jamestown 149 

after time was a young captain, John Smith, who just then 
was a prisoner under charge of having plotted a con- 
spiracy. 

There were bickerings and contentions and quarreling, 
squalid and disheartening enough. For the majority of 
the Council had the power to remove the Governor at any 
time — a power which they exercised whenever they saw 
fit. There were occasions when it appeared as though 



An early picture of Jamestown. 

almost all spirit had deserted them, and their great 
enterprise must fail. But it is well for the Anglo- 
Saxon race to pause and take note of the one great 
fact that, however their perils may have alarmed them and 
their vast isolation may have awed them, there always re- 
mained spirit enough to preserve them, and they remained 
in this far and perilous outpost of the Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
tion, and with the devotion of the vestal virgin of old, kept 
the fire, however dim its spark, ever alight on the sacred 



150 Explorers and Settlers 

shrine. Life in its most perilous and exacting form was 
the best to which they could look forward. Sickness and 
wounds, and death in its most terrible shape, ever con- 
fronted them, whether by the terror by night, or the arrow 
that flieth by day, the pestilence that walked in the dark- 
ness, or the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Before 
them, as they turned their faces back to the mother-coun- 
try, months and months away of toilsome, tedious, and per- 
ilous travel, they found the Spaniard, with sword and rack 
and stake, on the horizon. But their direst enemy was one 
more lurking than the savage Indian and more fell than 
the cruel Spaniard. They had pitched upon a landing- 
place simply because of the security which it offered against 
their enemies, without knowing aught of the climate 
and its perils; and it proved to be a spot so malarial that 
before the summer was out sixty men of the one hundred 
and twenty, among them the brave Gosnold, who had com- 
manded the Good Speed, were dead of wounds and disease, 
the first victims of the six thousand who laid down their 
lives in Virginia or on the way thither in the first nineteen 
years of her heroic history. Their sufferings so impressed 
that scholarly historian, George Percy, fourth President of 
the colony, that he pictured them in one of his reports, the 
virility of which is to-day the wonder of English writers. 

" Burning fevers destroyed them ; some departed sud- 
denly, but for the most part they died of mere famine. 
There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in 
such misery as we were in this new-discovered Virginia." 
" There was groaning in every corner of the Fort most 
pitiful to hear." ^' If there was any conscience in men," 
says the historian, " it would make their hearts to bleed to 
hear the pitiful murmurings and outcries . . . some 



Jamestown 



151 



departing out of the world, sometimes three and four in 
a night; in the morning their bodies trailed out of the 
cabins like dogs to be buried." It came to the point " when 
ten men could neither go nor stand." 

Then came the exploration of the Chickahominy and the 
Pamunkey, during which occurred the picturesque incident 
over which historians of late have quarreled so much, 
when, according to Smith's account, his life was saved by 
the young Indian princess, 
Pocahontas. Time fails 
to repeat the arguments in 
this place. They appear 
to establish the fact be- 
yond reasonable question. 
However that may be, that 
winter and the following 
summer the small remnant 
of men, under Captain 
John Smith, explored and 
charted the waters of the 
Chesapeake, with its noble 
tributaries, from the Falls 
of the James to the Falls 




jr lot liji hw than^Atthtfi , 



Pocahontas saving the life of 

Captain John Smith. 
From a picture in Smith's History. 



of the Potomac, above where the capital of the nation now 
stands, as within a short period afterward they explored 
the northern Chesapeake and the Susquehanna, mapping 
their discoveries with an accuracy which is the wonder of 
the present time. 

Once more came the starving time; but young Poca- 
hontas appears to have been the guardian angel of her new- 
found friends. 

The time is filled with exploration, with attacks on their 



152 Explorers and Settlers 

Indian enemies, and counter attacks by them, with charges 
and countercharges; but all the time the little colony was 
establishing itself. And meanwhile in England a new 
and broader charter was being secured. 

A vast step was made the next spring when Captain 
Samuel Argall, " an ingenious, active, and forward young 
gentleman," following the instructions of the adventurers, 
sailed straight across the sea and proved that there were 
no currents or constant winds to prevent a direct passage. 

Argall brought news of the new charter, and also the 
announcement that Captain Smith had been superseded in 
the office of President. 

And that September, Smith having been grievously 
wounded by an explosion of gunpowder while returning 
from a punitive expedition against the Indians near the 
Falls of the James, went back to England, leaving George 
Percy as President, who at the time was so ill that he could 
scarcely stand. Smith never returned to southern Vir- 
ginia, but some five or six years later he explored and 
charted the coast of northern Virginia, to which he gave 
the name of New England. Thus this doughty captain, 
though he may not have done all that he claimed, unques- 
tionably did more than any other man of his time to secure 
the permanency of the colonies both in southern and north- 
ern Virginia. 

By this time Virginia was established on a permanent 
basis. It had been found in England that the form of 
government under the King's charter bred many incon- 
veniences, and a new charter had been granted on June 
2, 1609, which contained the provision that the settlers and 
" all their children and posterity which shall happen to be 
born in any of the limits, shall have and enjoy all liberties, 



Jamestown 153 

franchises and immunities of free denisons and natural 
subjects within any of our other Dominions to all intents 
and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within 
this our realm of England." This was the Magna Charta 
of America. Moreover, the charter contained a grant run- 
ning from sea to sea. 

" The Great Parliament of Virginia Adventurers " be- 
came known throughout England, and was the talk of Lon- 
don. It proved the far sight of the Spanish ambassador, 
who told James I that '' the Virginia Courts are but a Sem- 
inary to a seditious Parliament." 

It bore rich fruit. Within a generation a " seditious 
Parliament," in which were many men who had been in- 
terested in this Virginia experiment, brought the head of 
King James's son to the block. 

By this time the coast of Virginia from the Carolinas 
to the French border was known and charted, and Vir- 
ginia began to protect her coasts. 

It having become known that the French had planted a 
colony at Mt. Desert Island, within the limits of Virginia, 
Captain Argall was sent by Sir Thomas Dale to root the 
colony up, and did it most effectively. Then sailing back 
to Virginia, he went up the Hudson as far as Albany, where 
the Dutch had established a trading-station, and ordered 
these intruders off as well. They promised to obey, but 
obeyed rather in the letter than in the spirit, as the follow- 
ing year they settled on Manhattan Island, where Peter 
Minuit having a little later cleared his title by paying the 
Indians $24.00 for the entire island, they remained until 
dispossessed by the English in 1664. 

In fact, not less than sixscore of the incorporators were 
members of Parliament, or had been such. Indeed, the 



154 Explorers and Settlers 

colonization of Virginia was a great national object, which 
appealed distinctly to the upper class, and was accomplished 
by the upper class. The perils and the hazards of the un- 
dertaking were just the things which appealed to this class ; 
and though many of them grew weary and fainted by the 
way, Virginia was settled by the gentry of Great Britain, 
who sent their younger sons, their retainers and tenants to 
clear the way, and then sent over whomever they might get 
to help establish the country : even '' idle persons who fol- 
lowed the Court," and waifs of the London streets, though 
the shipment of these elements continued for a very short 
time. Thus, Virginia was settled under the leadership of 
the gentry; but all classes came to make up the body of 
the people, and thus, possibly, more than any other colony 
it represented all phases of English life, and therefrom 
took on itself a countenance not unlike that of England. 
From the first there were distinctions drawn between the 
gentry and the lower classes. 

Slavery, introduced in the year 1619 by Samuel Argall, 
and the system of indentured service emphasized the class 
distinctions by building up a company of great landowners 
whose fine, old colonial mansions are to-day among the 
most interesting relics of our past history. But although 
devoted to the crown, they were much more devoted to 
their own welfare and their own rights. 

From the earliest period of her history the colony stood 
for those principles on which she was originally founded: 
the service of God, according to the Protestant faith ; the 
establishment of English civilization; the rights of English- 
born citizens. Through the long contest with the crown 
she stood valiantly for her rights. When, contrary to the 
orders of her assembly, her records were given up to the 



Jamestown 155 

crown, she stood up in the pillory the clerk who gave them, 
and clipped his ear. 

When the Revolution broke forth in England, she stood 
on her rights as a commonwealth, and Cromwell deemed it 
expedient to make a treaty with her as with an independent 
power. 

Before many years had gone by, other colonies had been 
planted along the coast. Maryland, hard by, had been 
granted to Lord Baltimore; Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, 
had been started on the same bay where Bartholomew Gos- 
nold had landed in 1602; Georgiana, further to the north- 
ward, had been founded almost on the same lines on which 
Virginia herself had become established. The Dutch had 
long settled at the mouth of the great river named for the 
great discoverer, Henry Hudson. And soon the Carolinas 
had followed. By the time that the first of these made 
good their footing, however, Virginia possessed a civiliza- 
tion substantially as much like that of England as was a 
generation ago that portion of Canada which lay along her 
western frontier. She had her vice-regal court; she had 
her established church and ritual ; she had her memorial 
system and her monthly courts; she had her House of Bur- 
gesses and Council patterned on the British Parliament, 
and, if possible, they were more jealous of their rights than 
the Parliament in the old country. 

Truly, as says Sir Francis Bacon, " In kingdoms, the 
first foundation, or plantation, is of more noble dignity 
and merit than all that followeth." 



THE LOST COLONY 

FROM THE EARLY CHRONICLES 

One of the earliest of the settlements of the English 
people in America, after continuing for some time with 
every appearance of success, somehow vanished from the 
face of the earth and left no record to show how or why 
it faded away. When the governor of this colony sailed 
home to England he left a prosperous settlement ; when 
he returned three years later he found not one of his peo- 
ple left. He had told them that in case of distress or 
danger they should carve on the trees, over the name of 
the colony, a cross X in this form. No such emblem was 
found when their governor returned. We can only guess 
at the fate of these people, for no trace has ever been dis- 
covered. 

Accounts from the early chronicles, of the first and sec- 
ond English settlements up to the time when the gov- 
ernor sailed away from the so-called " Lost Colony " on 
the Island of Roanoke are given below: 

'' In the year of our Lord, 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh, at 
his own charge, prepared a ship of an hundred tons, 
freighted with all manner of things in most plentiful man- 
ner, for the supply and relief of his colony then remaining 
in Virginia. But, before they set sail from England, it 
was after Easter; so that our Colony half despaired of the 
coming of any supply; wherefore every man prepared for 

156 



The Lost Colony 157 

himself, determining resolutely to spend the residue of his 
life in that country. 

'' And for the better performance of this their determina- 
tion, they sowed, planted, and set such things as were nec- 
essary for their relief in so plentiful a manner as might 
have sufficed for two years, without any further labor. 
Thus, trusting to their own harvest, they passed the sum- 
mer till the loth of June, at which time their corn which 
they had sowed was within one fortnight of reaping. But 
then it happened that Sir Francis Drake, in his prosperous 
return from the sacking of Saint Domingo, determined, in 
his way homeward, to visit his countrymen, the English 
colony then remaining in Virginia. So, passing along the 
coasts of Florida, he fell in with the parts where our Eng- 
lish colony inhabited; and, having espied some of that com- 
pany, there he anchored, and went a-land, where he con- 
ferred with them of their state and welfare and how things 
had passed with them. 

*' They answered him that they lived all, but hitherto in 
some scarcity, and as yet could hear of no supply out of 
England ; therefore they requested him that he would leave 
with them some two or three ships, that, if in some reason- 
able time they heard not out of England, they might then 
return themselves. Which he agreed to. Whilst some 
were then writing their letters to send into England, and 
some others making reports of the accidents of their trav- 
els each to other — some on land, some on board, — a 
great storm arose, and drove most of their fleet from their 
anchors to sea ; in which ships at that instant were the chief- 
est of the English colony. The rest on land, perceiving 
this, hasted to those three sails which were appointed to 
be left there, and, for fear they should be left behind, they 



158 Explorers and Settlers 

left all things confusedly, as if they had been chased from 
thence by a mighty army. 

" Immediately after the departing of our English col- 
ony out of this paradise of the world, the ship above men- 
tioned, sent and set forth at the charges of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, and his direction, arrived at Hatorask, who, after 
some time spent in seeking our colony up in the country, 
and not finding them, returned with all the aforesaid pro- 
vision to England. 

'' About fourteen or fifteen days after the departure of 
the aforesaid ship, Sir Walter Grenville, general of Vir- 
ginia, accompanied with three ships, well appointed for the 
same voyage, arrived there ; who not finding the aforesaid 
ship according to his expectation, nor hearing any news of 
the colony left there by him the year before, and finding 
the places where they inhabited desolate, yet unwilling to 
lose the possession of the country which Englishmen had 
so long held, after good deliberation, he determined to 
leave some men behind to retain possession of the coun- 
try. Whereupon he landed fifteen men in the Isle of Ro- 
anoke, furnished plentifully with all manner of provision 
for two years, and so departed for England. 

''In the year 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, intending to 
persevere in the planting of his country in Virginia, pre- 
pared a new colony of one hundred and fifty men to be sent 
thither, under the charge of John White, whom he ap- 
pointed governor; and also appointed under him twelve 
assistants, unto whom he gave a charter, and incorporated 
them by the name of Governor and Assistants of the City 
of Raleigh in Virginia. 

''Our fleet — being in number three sail, viz., the Ad- 
miral, a ship of one hundred and twenty tons, a fiy-boat, 



The Lost Colony 159 

and a pinnace — departed the sixth and twentieth of April 
from Portsmouth. The two and twentieth of July, we ar- 
rived safe at Hatorask, where our ship and pinnace an- 
chored. The governor went aboard the pinnace, accom- 
panied with forty of his best men, intending to pass up to 
Roanoke forthwith, hoping there to find those fifteen Eng- 
lishmen which Sir Richard Grenville had left there the year 
before. 

" We passed to Roanoke and the same night at sunset 
went a-land on the island, in the place where our fifteen 
men were left; but we -found none of them, nor any sign 
that they had been there, saving only we found the bones 
of those fifteen, which the savages had slain long before. 

" The three and twentieth of July, the governor, with 
divers of his company, walked to the north end of the 
island, where Master Ralph Lane had his fort, with sun- 
dry necessary and decent dwelling-houses, made by his men, 
where he hoped to find some signs or certain knowledge of 
our fifteen men. When we came thither, we found the 
fort razed down, but all the houses standing unhurt. 

" The same day the order was given that every man 
should be employed for the repairing of those houses which 
we found standing, and also to make other new cottages for 
such as should need. 

" The 25th, our fly-boat and the rest of our planters ar- 
rived all safe at Hatorask to the great joy and comfort of 
the whole company. 

" The 28th, George Howe, one of our twelve assistants, 
was slain by divers savages which were come over to Ro- 
anoke, either of purpose to espy our company, and what 
number we were, or else to hunt deer, wdiereof were many 
in the island. These savages — being secretly hidden 



l6o ^ Explorers and Settlers 

among high reeds, where oftentimes they find the deer 
asleep, and so kill them — espied our man wading in the 
water alone, almost naked, and shot at , him and gave him 
sixteen wounds with their arrows. 

" On the 30th of July Master Stafford and twenty of 
our men passed by water to the Island of Croatan with 
Manteo, who had his mother and many of his kindred 
dwelling upon that island; of whom he hoped to understand 
some news of our fifteen men, but especially to learn the 
disposition of the people of the country towards us. 

" We learned from them of Croatan, how that the fifteen 
Englishmen were suddenly set upon by thirty of the men 
of Secota, Aguascogoc, and Dasamonguepenk, and hav- 
ing sufficiently dispatched our business at Croatan, the same 
day departed friendly, taking our leave. 

" The 1 8th, Eleanor, daughter to the governor, and wife 
to Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a 
daughter in Roanoke, and the same was christened there 
the Sunday following: and because this was the first Chris- 
tian born in Virginia she was named Virginia. By this 
time, our ships had unladen the goods and victuals of the 
planters, and began to take in wood and fresh water, and 
to new calk and trim them for England ; the planters, also, 
prepared their letters and tokens to send back into Eng- 
land." 

Half hidden in a clump of trees on the sand dunes of the 
island there now stands a six-foot monument bearing the 
following inscription : 

On this site in July- August, 1585 (O. S.), colonists sent 
out from England by Sir Walter Raleigh built a fort, called 
by them The New Fort in Virginia. These colonists 
were the First Settlers of the English race in America. 



The Lost Colony 



161 



They returned to England in June, 1586, with Sir Francis 
Drake. Near this place was born on the i8th of August, 
1587, Virginia Dare, the First Child of English parents 
born in America, daughter of Ananias Dare and Eleanor 
White, his wife, members of another band of colonists sent 
out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. On Sunday, August 
20th, 1587, Virginia Dare was baptized. Manteo, the 
friendly chief of the Hatteras Indians, had been baptized 
on the Sunday preceding. These baptisms are the First 
known celebrations of a Christian sacrament in the terri- 
tory of the thirteen original United States. Erected 1896. 



POCAHONTAS 

Who will shield the fearless heart? 

Who avert the murderous blade? 
From the throng with sudden start 

See, there springs an Indian maid. 
Quick she stands before the knight; 

"Loose the chain, unbind the ring! 
I am daughter of the King, 

And I claim the Indian right ! " 



Dauntlessly aside she flings 

Lifted axe and thirsty knife, 
Fondly to his heart she clings, 

And her bosom guards his life ! 
In the woods of Powhatan, 

Still 'tis told by Indian fires 
How a daughter of their sires 

Saved a captive Englishman. 



Thackeray. 



THE SETTLERS AND THE IROQUOIS 

ADAPTED FROM J. R. SIMMS AND OTHERS 

In addition to all the trials of subduing the forest and 
extracting a living from a new and uncultivated country, the 
settlers had to contend with the wiles of the Indians. 

And we must remember that the Indians with whom the 
early settlers had to deal were very different from the In- 
dians of a few decades later, when contact with civilization 
had somewhat changed their customs. 

The first settlers of the colony of 
New York emigrated from Holland 
with Henry Hudson in the little 
Half-Moon of not half the tonnage 
of a modern Erie Canal boat, and 
with a crew of twenty English and 
Dutch seamen. 

Their contact with the Indians 
began at once. It was in 1609 that 
Hudson came upon the great river 
that now bears his name, and began 
to receive visits from the Indians and to go out among them. 
" Then the sun arose, and we steered away north again, 
and saw the land from west by north, to the northwest by 
north, all like broken islands; and our soundings were 
eleven and ten fathoms. The course along the land we 
found to be northeast by north from the land which we 
first had sight of, until we came to a great lake of water, 

162 




Henry Hudson's coat of 
arms. 



The Settlers and the Iroquois 163 

as we could judge it to be. . . . The mouth of that 
land hath many shoals, and the sea breaketh on them. 
. . The land is very pleasant and high and bold to 
fall withal. 

'' The 4th, in the morning, as soon as the day was light, 
we saw it was good riding further up. So we sent our boat 
to sound, and found it was a very good harbor. Then we 
weighed and went in with our ship. Then our boat went 
to land with our net, to fish, and caught ten great mullets 
of a foot and a half long apiece, and a ray as great as 
four men could haul into the ship. This day the people of 
the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our 
coming, and brought green tobacco, and gave us of it for 
knives and beads. They go in deerskins, loose, well 
dressed. They desire clothes and are very civil. They 
have great stores of maize or Indian wheat, whereof they 
make good bread. The country is full of great tall oaks." 

Of another day, his diary tells of their sending men 
further up the river, who reported " the lands as pleasant 
with grass and flowers and goodly trees as ever they had 
seen and goodly smells came from them." But as they 
came back they " were set upon by two canoes, the one 
having twelve, the other fourteen men, and had one man 
slain in the fight." 

Another day they proceeded two leagues up the river 
and anchored. '' Then there came eight and twenty canoes 
full of men, women and children to betray us; but we saw 
their intent and suffered none of them to come aboard us. 
They brought with them oysters and beans, whereof we 
bought some." 

Another day he describes a trip of twenty leagues up 
the river, '' passing high mountains." 



164 Explorers and Settlers 

After the discovery by Captain Hudson the Dutch be- 
gan to avail themselves of the advantages which it pre- 
sented to their view and at least one ship was sent hither 
by the East India Company for the purpose of trading in 
furs, which, it is well known, continued to be the principal 
object of commercial attraction to this part of the world. 
The whole colony was named New Netherlands. 

In all his writings Governor Stuyvesant, the first gov- 
ernor, called the Indians Savages. It is worthy of men- 
tion that nearly all of the serious difficulties with the In- 
dians started in a brandy battle (all liquor seems to have 
been called brandy). So well was it known and felt that 
liquor originated trouble, that Sander Toursen and his 
wife, w^ho kept a small tavern in New Amsterdam, were 
arrested and banished to the Fatherland for selling brandy 
to Indians. The great profit derived from the traffic pre- 
vented its being effectually stopped. 

What do we know of the Indians of Central New York, 
when our European ancestry first began to subdue its for- 
ests? Within it dwelt the Five Nations, as called by the 
English ; The Iroquois, as named by the French ; The Mo- 
hawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca Nations 
formed the confederacy. Each of the Five Nations was 
subdivided into three families or tribes. 

They were ever noted as a warlike people, and their 
known bravery and invincible prowess made their strong 
arm felt and respected over a large area of territory, now 
embraced in several states and the Canadas. Their women 
did their drudgery and so far as it was done, cultivated 
their maize and beans; while the men made their war-im- 
plements, such as bows and arrows and spears, as also 
their bark canoes; but they had little ambition to gratify in 



The Settlers and the Iroquois 165 

either the construction of their rude huts — which were 
principally of bark — or in the display of their wardrobes, 
for the latter consisted almost entirely of the skins of wild 
animals secured in the chase, which they dressed and used 
for clothing and bedding in the winter. . . 

Soon after the French located in Canada, to render the 




Indian rattles of turtle shell. 

Indians in their alliance a more formidable adversary for 
the Iroquois, they placed firearms in their hands, a policy 
which ere long was also adopted by the Dutch colonists 
of New York toward their allies, and continued after the 
Colony came under English rule. . . . 

Each of the nations was divided into three families, dis- 
tinguished by the ensigns of the tortoise, the bear and the 



i66 



Explorers and Settlers 



wolf, which they traced upon all deeds and contracts and 
often pricked and painted on the several parts of their 
bodies to indicate the nations or tribes to which they be- 
longed. 

Their chiefs were usually poor, having no salary or pay 
for their services, which they freely gave in return for the 
honor of the position. 

All records and traditions give the Mohawk nation the 
reputation of standing at the head of the Five Nations in 
bravery, sagacity and influence, although less in numbers 
than any of the other nations. Their name became a ter- 
ror to all the New England Indians and the appearance of 
only a few Mohawks was enough to put many of the others 
to flight, compelling them to pay tribute in wampum. 




Wampum Belt, presented by Indians to William Penn. 



Wampum is the current money among Indians and is of 
two sorts, white and purple. The white is worked out of 
the inside of the great conch shells into the form of a 
bead, and perforated to string on leather. The purple is 
worked out of other shells. They are woven into belts, 
which they give and receive at their treaties and seals of 
friendship. Every bead is of a known value. The white 
were about half the value of the purple. 



The Settlers and the Iroquois 167 

All the Iroquois, and not only the Mohawks, had a great 
name for bravery in battle and endurance in suffering. 
They have been called the finest and most formidable of 
all the Indians in America and very judicious in the man- 
agement of all their tribal affairs. 

The cruelty of all Indians to unresisting women and 
children and to their prisoners is undoubted. The deepest 
tragedy of colonial life was captivity. The fear of this 
dwelt ever in the colonist's heart and he preferred death. 
Every father watched over his children with terror in his 
heart. 

Among Indian customs was the use of tokens. The 
hatchet was the emblem of war, the tree the metaphor of 
peace; a chain was an emblem of alliance, as was also the 
belt of wampum. The calumet was a large smoking pipe, 
the bowl of which was usually wrought from red sand- 
stone with a stem of some hollow wood. 

The Indians always painted their faces and their arms 
and chests, if bare, when going to war. This was sup- 
posed to make them look formidable. Vermilion in stripes 
was the favorite adornment of the Iroquois. 

Their sudden descents upon the colonists were terrible 
and swift. The burning of Schenectady in 1690, wdien it 
had from 40 to 60 dwellings, by French and Indians is one 
of the best known 'of their cruel assaults. Scarcely a house 
was spared and some 60 people were slaughtered. 

The original Indian was a great scout and the colonist 
learned many useful things from him not only about fight- 
ing but about hunting and about living. The Indian wig- 
wam was so useful and easily built that the early settlers 
found it wise to copy it on many occasions of urgent need. 
Early settlers not only in New York but in Virginia and in 



i68 Explorers and Settlers 

Massachusetts made much use of it for a good many 
years. 

One of their useful things was the birch-bark canoe — 




Chart showing the approximate location of the more prominent Indian 
tribes when first known to Europeans, 



The Settlers and the Iroquois 169 

and that is seen to this day among the woodsmen of the 
Adirondacks and Canada. 

Their maize or Indian corn more than once saved the 
lives of the colonists — of whole colonies of colonists in 
fact, and their tobacco gave an article of use and com- 
merce. 

The Iroquois felt great pride in his race. " Must I," 
exclaimed one of their warriors who fell wounded by a 
crowd of Algonquins — '' must I, who have made the whole 
earth tremble, now die by the hands of children? " Their 
war-parties roamed over half of America and their name 
was a terror from one coast to the other. When we re- 
member that in the days of their greatest triumphs they 
could not have mustered four thousand warriors, we are 
amazed at the extent of their territory and control. 

In some measure their triumphs were due to the posi- 
tion of their country, for several great rivers and the in- 
land oceans of the Great Lakes opened up easy thorough- 
fares through all the adjacent wilderness. 

The Iroquois were fond of the chase, the war-path, the 
dance, the festival, the game of hazard and the race for 
political ambition. When the sachems had resolved to 
war against some foreign tribe they prepared themselves 
with fasting, praying and omens; with invoking the war- 
god and dancing the war-dance; and then they began 
their stealthy progress through the forest pathways. When 
they returned, victorious perhaps in a few weeks' time, their 
village became alive with commotion. The whole com- 
munity rushed forth to torture the captives. These bar- 
barities were among their greatest enjoyments and yet they 
felt a seemingly equal pleasure in more innocent amuse- 
ments. They were a strange mixture of ferocity and gen- 



lyo 



Explorers and Settlers 



tleness. Each season had its feasts and dances, the young 
had their froHcs and merry-makings and the old had their 
councils and story-tellings. 

Such inconsistencies are not unknown in other races of 
men, but in the Iroquois they were more glaring and more 
primitive. Ambition, revenge, envy, jealousy are ruling 
passions with him, and he does not conceal them when they 
burn at heat, though over his emotions he throws a veil of 
iron. 







Chaniplain fighting the Iroquois. 

Frc.in ChamplaiD'a bcuk, iiublished m K13. 




OLD DUTCH TIMES IN NEW YORK 
By Thomas Wentworth Higginson 

HERE was once an English sailor, 
named Henry Hudson, who made 
some very daring voyages. The 
European nations were trying hard 
to find a short passage to India, 
either by passing north of Europe, 

yne^nh^tf^Tgrr ^^ ^y ^"^i^^g some opening through 
boi^gihC%theXTT^ch the new continent of America. 
~^^^— f - -f--T Henry Hudson had made two voy- 

ages for this purpose, in the employ of English companies. 
Twice he had sailed among the icebergs and through the 
terrible cold, as far as Spitzbergen ; and twice he had turned 
back because he could get no farther. But he was still as 
resolute and adventurous as ever; always ready for some- 
thing new ; ready to brave the arctic cold or the tropic heat, 
if he could only find that passage to India, which so many 
had sought in vain. At last, on the fourth of April, 1609, 
the Dutch East India Company sent him out once more to 
seek a passage to India. The Dutch at that time were the 
great commercial nation of the world, and Amsterdam was 
the center of the commerce of Europe. There was not a 
forest of ship-timber in Holland, but it owned more ships 
than all Europe beside. 

Henry Hudson's vessel was named The Half-Moon. He 
had a crew of twenty Englishmen and Dutchmen, and his 

171 



172 



Explorers and Settlers 




own son was among them. First he sailed north, as he 
had done before, trying to reach Spitzbergen and Nova 
Zembla ; but he found icebergs everywhere, and his men 
ahnost mutinied because of the cold. Then he resolved 

to sail farther 
westward ; he 
passed near 
Greenland, . then 
southward to 
Newfoundland, 
then to Cape Cod ; 
then as far south 
as Virginia; then 
Old picture of " New Amsterdam," now New he turned north- 

^^ ' ward again, ob- 

serving the shore more closely, and found himself at 
the mouth of what seemed to him a broad strait or river. 
On September 3, 1609, he anchored near Sandy Hook. 
There the Indians came out to trade with him, and after a 
few days he set sail again, and penetrated farther and 
farther, thinking he had found the passage to India at 
last. 

It must have been an exciting thing to sail with Henry 
Hudson up that noble river, where no white man had ever 
sailed before. He said in his narrative that the lands on 
both sides were " pleasant with grass and flow^ers and 
goodly trees." " It is as beautiful a land as one can tread 
upon," he declared, " and abounds in all kinds of excellent 
ship-timber." The Indians came out to meet him in 
canoes ''made of single hollowed trees," but he would not 
let them come on board at first, because one of them had 
killed one of his sailors with an arrow. After awhile, the 



Old Dutch Times in New York 173 



Dutchmen put more confidence in the Indians, and let them 
bring grapes and pumpkins and furs to the vessel. These 
were paid for with beads, knives, and hatchets. At the 
last the Indians invited the bold sea-captain to visit them 
on shore, and made him very welcome, and one of their 
chiefs " made an oration, and showed him all the country 
round about." Henry Hudson sailed up as far as where 
the town of Hudson now stands, and there, finding it too 
shallow for his vessel, sent a boat farther still, — as far 
as what is now Albany. Then he turned back, disap- 
pointed, and sailed out of the '' great river," or " Groot 
Rivier," as he called it, and went back to Holland. 







^^ 




New Amsterdam between 1630 and 1640. 
From a Dutch book. Thought to be the oldest picture of what is now New York. 

He never saw that beautiful river again. The Dutch 
East India Company did not care to explore it, since it did 
not lead to India ; and Hudson, on his next voyage, went to 
the northern seas, hoping to find a passage to India that 



174 



Explorers and Settlers 




way. He entered the bay that now bears his name, and 
there his men mutinied, tied him hand and foot, put him 
on board a boat with his son and a few companions among 
the floating ice, and set him adrift. Nothing more was 
ever heard of him. But to this day, some of the descend- 
ants of old Dutch fami- 
nes on the Hudson River 
tell legends of the daring 
navigator wdio first ex- 
plored it, and when the 
thunder rolls away over 
the Highlands, they say, 
" There are Henry Hud- 
son and his crew play- 
ing ninepins among the 
hills." 

In a few years, trading- 
posts began to be estab- 
lished on the Hudson 
River. King James I of 
England had lately char- 
tered two companies for 
the purpose of colonizing 
North America. One 
was to take the northern 
part of the Atlantic coast, 
and the other the south- 
ern half; but he required 
that their nearest settle- 
ments should be a hun- 
dred miles apart, so that 
there should be no quar- 



Early Settlements in New York and 
New Jersey. 



Old Dutch Times in New York 175 

reling between them. It did not occur to him that if he left 
this wide space open, some other nation might sHp in be- 
tween and found colonies of its own, so that there might be 
quarreling after all. Yet this was just what happened. 
After Henry Hudson's discoveries, Holland laid claim to all 
the land along the '' great river," and called the whole terri- 
tory '' New Netherlands " ; and the Dutch began to come 
to that region and trade with the Indians. Then, in 16 14, 
there came a bold sailor, named Adrian Block, the first Eu- 
ropean who ever sailed through Hurlgate, and as far as 
Block Island, which was named after him. He loaded his 
ship — the Tiger — with bearskins, at the mouth of the 
Hudson, and was just ready to sail, when his ship caught 
fire, and he had to land on Manhattan Island, where New 
York now stands. There his men spent the winter. They 
put up some log huts and a fort of logs; and before spring, 
they built a new vessel of sixteen tons, called the Onrust, 
or Unrest, a very good name for the restless navigators 
of those days. This was the first vessel built on this con- 
tinent by Europeans. This settlement, which was called 
'' New Amsterdam," was the foundation of what is now 
the great city of New York, and ten years after that the 
whole of Manhattan Island was bought from the Indians 
for twenty- four dollars. 

Settlers at first came slowly to New Amsterdam; but 
the Dutch established several trading-posts, at different 
points, where they might buy the skins of beavers, bears, 
and otters, which the Indians had trapped or shot. At 
first only poor immigrants came, but after awhile certain 
richer and more influential men were sent out, with spe- 
cial privileges from the Dutch East India Company. Each 
of these had authority to found a colony of fifty persons, 



176 



Explorers and Settlers 



and to own a tract of land sixteen miles in length, border- 
ing on any stream whose shores were not yet occupied, and 
running back as far as he pleased into the interior. He 
was required to pay the Indians for their land, and to es- 
tablish his colony within four years. He could exercise 
authority on his own '' manor," as it was called, without 
regard to the colonial government. But he could not en- 
gage in the w^oolen or cotton manufacture, because that 
was a monopoly of the Dutch East India Company. 




New York in 1673. 



This was a very different system from the simple way 
in which New England had been colonized, where all men 
were equal before the law, and each man had a voice in 
the government. The Dutch and English settlers did not 
agree very well, especially when both nations had begun 
to explore the Connecticut Valley, and both wished to se- 
cure possession of it. The Englishmen thought that the 



Old Dutch Times in New York 177 

Dutchmen had no business on the continent at all and that 
they certainly had no claim to the Connecticut Valley. 
On the other hand the Dutchmen said that they had as- 
cended the Connecticut River first, and that their eastern 
boundary was the cape now called Cape Cod. Then the 
Englishmen charged the Dutchmen with exciting the In- 
dians against them; and on the other hand the Dutchmen 
said that the English settlers were apt to get the better of 
them in making bargains. So the colony of New Nether- 
lands got into more and more trouble with these active and 
sharp-witted neighbors; and, besides that, the Indians were 
very troublesome; and there was also a standing quarrel 
with the Swedish settlers in Delaware ; so that, on the 
whole, the Dutchmen had not so peaceful a time as they 
might have desired. 

If we could have visited a Puritan village in Massachu- 
setts during those early days, and then could have sailed 
in a trading-vessel to New Amsterdam, we should have 
found ourselves in quite a dilTerent community from that 
we had left behind. The very look of the houses and 
streets would have seemed strange. To be sure, the very 
first settlers in both colonies had to build their cabins some- 
what alike; with walls of earth or logs, and thatched roofs, 
and chimneys made of small sticks of wood, set crosswise 
and smeared with clay. But when they began to build 
more permanent houses, the difference was very plain. 
The houses in New Amsterdam were of wood, with gable- 
ends built of small black and yellow bricks, brought over 
from Holland. Each house had many doors and win- 
dows; and the date when it was built was often marked 
in iron letters on the front. The roof usually bore a 
wxather-cock, and sometimes many. Within, the floors 



178 Explorers and Settlers 

were covered with white sand, on which many neat figures 
were traced with a broom. The houses were kept very clean, 
inside and out; as clean as they still are in Holland, where 
you may see the neat housekeepers scrubbing their door- 
steps, even when the rain is pouring down upon their 
heads. The furniture in these houses was plain and solid: 
heavy claw- footed chairs, polished mahogany tables, and 
cupboards full of old silver and china. Clocks and watches 
were rare, and time was told by hour-glasses and sun- 
dials. There were great open fireplaces, set round with 
figured tiles of different colors and patterns, commonly 
representing Scriptural subjects — the Ark, the Prodigal 
Son, and the Children of Israel passing through the Red 
Sea. In the evening pine-knots were burned for light, or 
home-made tallow candles. Every house had two or more 
spinning-wheels; and a huge oaken chest held the house- 
hold linen, all of which had been spun upon these wheels 
by the women of the family. 

Many of the citizens had also country-houses, called 
" boweries," with porches or " stoeps," on which the men 
could sit and smoke their pipes. For the Dutch colonists 
did not work so hard as those in New England ; they moved 
about more slowly, and took more leisure, and amused 
themselves more, in a quiet way. They were not gay and 
light-hearted and fond of dancing, like the French settlers 
in Canada; but they liked plenty of good eating and drink- 
ing, and telling stories, and hearty laughter, and playing 
at " bowls " on a smooth grass plot. It was the Dutch 
who introduced various festivals that have been preserved 
ever since in America ; such as " Santa Claus," or " St. 
Nicholas," at Christmas-time, colored eggs at Easter, and 
the practice of New Year's visiting. 



Old Dutch Times in New York 179 



They kept very early hours, dining at eleven or twelve, 
and often going to bed at sunset. Yet an early Swedish 
traveler describes them as sitting on the " stoeps " before 
their houses, on moonlight evenings, and greeting the 
passers-by, who, in return, were '' obliged to greet every- 
body," he says, 
" unless they 
would shock the 
general politeness 
of the town." He 
also says that the 
Dutch people in 
Albany used to 
breakfast on tea, 
without milk, 
sweetened by hold- 
ing a lump of su- 
gar in the mouth ; 
and that they 
dined on butter- 
milk and bread, 
" and if to that 
they added a piece 
of sugar, it was 
called delicious." 
But the Dutch 
housekeepers of New Amsterdam had a great repu- 
tation for cookery, and especially for a great variety of 
nice cakes, such as doughnuts, " olykoeks," and crullers. 

The people of New Netherlands were not quite so fond 
of church-going as those who had settled Plymouth and 
Salem, but they were steady in the support of public wor- 




Diitch House, Albany. 



i8o Explorers and Settlers 

ship, and had a great respect for their ministers, whom 
they called '' dominies." Sometimes the dominies had to 
receive their salaries in beaver-skins or wampum when 
money was scarce. The dominie of Albany had one hun- 
dred and fifty beaver-skins a year. As for the dress of 
these early colonists, the women used to wear close white 
muslin caps, beneath which their hair was put back with 
pomatum; and they wore a great many short and gaily- 
colored petticoats, with blue, red, or green stockings of 
their own knitting, and high-heeled shoes. The men had 
broad-skirted coats of linsey-woolsey, with large buttons 
of brass or silver; they wore several pairs of knee-breeches, 
one over another, with long stockings, and with great 
buckles at the knees and on the shoes, and their hair was 
worn long and put up in an eelskin queue. As to their 
employments, the people of New Amsterdam used to trade 
with the West Indies and with Europe, exporting timber, 
and staves, tar, tobacco, and furs. They used to build 
their own ships for this commerce, giving them high- 
sounding names, such as Queen Esther, King Solomon, and 
the Angel Gabriel. 

One of the Dutch governors, named William Kieft, used 
to be called '' William the Testy," from his hot temper, and 
he kept the colony in a great deal of trouble, especially 
through his cruelty to the Indians, who injured the settlers 
very much in return. Governor Kieft was very much dis- 
pleased at the colonies sent from Massachusetts into the 
Connecticut Valley, for he wished to see that region settled 
from New Amsterdam only. So he issued a proclamation 
against the New England men. But they, instead of pay- 
ing the least attention to it, attacked the Dutch fort at 
Hartford, and drove the garrison away. They also took 



Old Dutch Times in New York 181 

possession of the eastern part of Long Island ; threw down 
the coat-of-arms of Holland, which had been set up there, 
and put a '' fool's head " in its place. This failure, and 
the severity of Kieft's government, made him very un- 
popular; and the people were very glad when, in 1647, 
Peter Stuyvesant was appointed in his stead. 

Governor Stuvvesant was a brave and honest man, but 




A Dutch farmhouse, or " bowerie." 

was so obstinate that he was often called " Hardkoppig 
Piet," or '' Headstrong Peter." Sometimes he was called 
'' Old Silverleg," because he had lost a leg in war, and used 
to stump about on a wooden leg, ornamented with strips of 
silver. Under his government the colony was well de- 
fended, for a time, against Indians, Swedes, and English- 
men. The trouble was that he was quite despotic, and 
was disposed to let the people have as little as possible to 
do with the government. They did not feel that they had 



l82 



Explorers and Settlers 



— ^ ^^ 




as much freedom 
' as those who Hved 
in the other col- 
onies, and they 
were not so ready 
to fight for their 
patroons and for 
the East India 
Company as were 
the Enghsh col- 
onists to fight for 
Dwelling-house in New Amsterdam. their OWn home- 

steads. Then the English settlers increased very fast in 
wealth and numbers ; and the Dutchmen rather envied them, 
even while quarreling with them. At last, in 1664, an Eng- 
lish fleet, with many recruits from New England on 
board, appeared before New 
Amsterdam; and very soon 
the town was surrendered to 
the English by the general 
wish of the inhabitants, 
though against the will of 
'' Headstrong Peter." He 
tore in pieces the letter from 
the English commodore re- 
quiring the surrender ; but the 
people made him put it to- 
gether again, and accept the 
terms offered. From that 
time, except for one short in- pg^^r Stuyvesant. 

terv^al, the English held pOS- From a painting from life, in 
r A- AT i-1 1 1 possession of the New York 

session of New Netherlands. Historical Society. 




Old Dutch Times in New York 183 



The name of the colony was then changed to New York, 
in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York, to whom 
King Charles II gave the province. That part of New 
Netherlands south of the Hudson was, however, made into 
a separate province, under the name of New Jersey. The 
Duke of York allowed his province to hold an assembly, 
that the people might 
make their own laws ; 
and, in 1683, they ob- 
tained a charter for 
themselves, much like 
those of the colonies 
farther east. When 
the duke became king, 
under the name of 
James II, he tried to 
take away this charter, 
but never succeeded. 
New York remained 




The New York " Stadt Huys," or 
state house, in 1679, corner of Pearl 
Street and Coenties Slip. 



an English province, and lost some of its Dutch peculiari- 
ties ; but some of these traits lingered for a good many years, 
and Dutch was long the prevailing language. There were 
still Dutch schools, where English was taught only as an 
accomplishment ; but there was no college till King's Col- 
lege — now Columbia — was founded in 1764. After the 
English had taken possession, a great many immigrants 
came to New York, though not so many as to Philadelphia ; 
and these newcomers represented many different nations. 
But Holland itself had long been the abode of men from 
a great many nations, both because of its commercial pros- 
perity and from its offering an asylum to those persecuted 
for their religion. So there had been an unusual variety 



i84 



Explorers and Settlers 



of people of New Amsterdam from its first settlement; and 
it is said that eighteen languages were already spoken there 
when it was transferred to the English. Thus New York 
seemed marked out from the very beginning for a cosmo- 
politan city — for the home of people from all parts of 
the globe. 



Im CkijrVaTiIt f le^f L ur ie d 

, PrTRUS STUYVESANT 
iCaptainGenera^GovernorinChiefofAmstercIaml 
iiNewNeflierlandTiow caJIed.New^\Bfk 

An(IfKeDutchWe^Tiit{falsIanasDfecrAD.]^f||^;2;l)Ll 
Aged 30 ycd.re. " 



Grave of Peter Stuyvesant, St. Mark's Church, New York City. 



THE MOTHER CITY OF GREATER NEW YORK 
By Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer 

The sum of sixty guilders (about twenty- four dollars) 
was not a big one to pay for so big an island as Manhattan, 
thirteen miles in length from north to south and for the 
greater part two miles broad. But it satisfied '' the lord 
Sachems of the Manhathes." 

In 1628 the white people on Manhattan numbered ''270 
souls, including Men, Women and Children," a good many 
more than could be counted at Plymouth, while Boston had 
not then been born. They '' remained as yet without the 
Fort in no fear as the Natives live peaceably with them." 
Wassenaer, the first historian of New Netherland, tells us 
this, and adds : 

These strangers for the most part occupy their farms. What- 
ever they require is supplied by the directors.^ The winter grain 
has turned out well there, but the summer grain, which ripened 
before it was half grown in consequence of the excessive heat, 
was very light. The cattle sent thither have had good increase, 
and everything promises better as soon as the land is improved, 
which is very poor and scrubby. 

Of the town of New Amsterdam itself Wassenaer 
writes : 

1 The " directors " or " masters " to whom the records and letters 
of New Netherland constantly refer as the arbitrators of its fate were 
the officers of the West India Company in Holland. The Koopman 
was the secretary for the province ; the Schout, or Schout-Fiscal, 
combined the duties of sheriff and attorney-general ; and both of these, 
like the governor or director-general, were appointed by the Company. 

185 



i86 Explorers and Settlers 

The counting house there is kept in a stone building thatched 
with reed; the other houses are of the bark of trees. Each has 
his own house. The Director and Koopman live together; there 
are thirty ordinary houses on the east side of the river which 
runs nearly north and south. The Honorable Peter Minuit is 
Director there at present ; Jan Lampo Schout ; Sebastian Jansz 
Crol and Jan Huyck, Comforters of the Sick who, while await- 
ing a clergyman, read to the Commonalty there on Sundays from 
texts of Scripture with the comment. Francois Molemaecker is 
busy building a horse-mill over which shall be constructed a 
spacious room sufficient to accommodate a large congregation, 
and then a tower is to be erected where the bells brought from 
Porto Rico will be hung, . . . Men work there as in Holland ; 
one trades upwards, southwards and northwards ; another builds 
houses, the third farms. Each farmer has his farm and the 
cows on the land purchased by the Company; but the milk re- 
mains to the profit of the Boor ; he sells it to those of the people 
who receive their wages for work every week. The houses of the 
Hollanders now stand without the fort, but when it is completed 
they will all repair within, so as to garrison it and be secure 
from sudden attack. 

A more personal description is preserved in a letter 
written from Manhattan, in August, 1628, by the Rev. 
Jonas Michaelius to a friend in Amsterdam. He tells that 
he had established a congregation, and at the first service 
of the Lord's Supper had had " fully fifty communicants, 
Walloons and Dutch." He mentions the death of his wife, 
and then he says: 

I find myself by the loss of my good and helping partner very 
much hindered and distressed, — for my two little daughters are 
yet small ; maid servants are not here to be had, at least none 
whom they advise me to take ; and the Angola slaves are thievish, 
lazy, and useless trash. . . . The promise which the Lords 
Masters of the Company had made me of some acres or surveyed 
lands for me to make myself a home, instead of a free table 



The Mother City of Greater New York 187 

which otherwise belonged to me, is wholly of no avail. For their 
Honors well know that there are no horses, cows, nor laborers 
to be obtained here for money. ... So I will be compelled to 
pass through the winter without butter and other necessaries which 
the ships did not bring with them to be sold here. The rations 
which are given out and charged for high enough are all hard, 
stale food as they are used to on board ship; and frequently 
this is not very good and there cannot be obtained as much of 
it as may be desired. . . . The summer yields something, 
but what of that for any one who has no strength? The Indians 
also bring some things, but one who has no wares, such as 
knives, beads and the like, or Seewan, cannot have any good of 
them. ... I have now ordered from Holland almost all nec- 
essaries : but expect to pass through the winter with hard and 
scanty food. The country yields many good things for the sup- 
port of life, but they are all to be gathered in an uncultivated 
and wild state. . . . They fell much wood here to carry to 
Fatherland, but the vessels are too few to take much of it. They 
are making a windmill to saw the wood and we have also a 
gristmill. . . . The country is good and pleasant and the 
climate is healthy notwithstanding the sudden changes of cold 
and heat. The sun is very warm ; the winter strong and severe 
and continues full as long as in our country. The best remedy 
is not to spare the wood — of which there is enough — and to 
cover oneself well with rough skins which can also easily be 
obtained. The harvest — God be praised — is in the barns, and 
is better gathered than ever before. The ground is fertile enough 
to reward labor, but they must clear it well and manure and 
cultivate it the same as our lands require. It has hitherto hap- 
pened much worse because many of the people are not very 
laborious or could not obtain their proper necessaries for want of 
bread. But it now begins to go on better, and it would be en- 
tirely different now if the Masters would only send good laborers 
and make regulations of all matters, in order, with what the 
land itself produces, to do for the best. 

These are very simple accounts of a very poor and 
humble frontier village. There is no talk of personal in- 



i88 Explorers and Settlers 

dependence, for the white men, Hke the red, are as yet 
the Company's tenants at will. There is no talk, as there 
always was in New England, of founding a new common- 
wealth, or of propagating " pure " forms of faith. The 
chief structure is a house of trade, and the house of God is 
an accessory part of one devoted to the nurture of the 
body. Nevertheless, there is a care for the soul. Fifty 
communicants are a goodly number to be drawn from a 
population of less than three hundred persons of all ages, 
and " Comforters of the Sick " has a more gently Christian 
sound than most of the ecclesiastical terms of the time. 
The second governor, Wouter Van Twiller, who arrived 
in 1632, was a weak and bibulous gentleman, caring much 
for his own interests, little for those of the Company or 
its colonists. Yet he improved the town to some extent. 

Kieft was a more active governor than Van Twiller, and 
did much for his town before he ruined it by bringing on an 
Indian war. He imported horses, cattle, negroes, and salt, 
and bought from the Indians more lands on Long Island, 
which he rented as fast as he could. He took a keen in- 
terest in horticulture; and on Staten Island he set up, for 
his own profit, the first brandy-still that the colony had 
seen. '' Staple rights " had been granted to Manhattan — 
all passing vessels were obliged to unload at its wharf, or 
to pay a toll instead. Small bodies of settlers arrived; 
private planters went to work in earnest; the Company's 
farms were improved; and statutes were passed to regu- 
late tobacco culture, now become a prominent industry. 



HOW THE PILGRIMS CAME TO PLYMOUTH 
By Azel Ames, M.D. 

For nearly twelve years '' brave little Holland " had 
given shelter to the true men and women who, in 1607-08, 
were driven out of England by the persecution of the 
bishops because they zvoiild worship God in their own way. 

After many trials and dangers they came together at 
Amsterdam in 1608, and formed a little " Independent " 
church, with Richard Clifton, their old pastor among the 
Nottingham hills, for their minister, and John Robinson, 
their teacher, as his assistant. 

Governor Bradford tells us, in his " Historie," that 
" when they had lived at Amsterdam about a year they 
removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city and of a 
sweet situation,'' on the " Old Rhine." Clifton was grow- 
ing old and did not go with them, and Robinson became 
their pastor. 

For eleven years — nearly the whole time of " the fa- 
mous truce " which came between the bloody wars of Hol- 
land and Spain — they lived here, married, children were 
born to them, and here some of them died. 

Most of them had been farmers in England, but here 
" they fell to such trades & imployments as they best 
could, valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any 
other riches whatsoever, and at length they came to raise 
a competente and comfortable living, but with hard and 
continuall labor." 

189 




Copyright, 1901, by Marshall Johosou 

The Mayflower nearing Plymouth Harbor. 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 191 

But about 16 1 7 these good, brave people of Pastor Rob- 
inson's flock became very anxious as to their circumstances 
and future, — especially for their children, — and at length 
came sadly to realize that they must again seek a new 
home. Their numbers had much increased, they could not 
hope to work so hard as they grew older, while war with 
the Spaniard was coming, and would surely make matters 
harder for them. But the chief reasons which made them 
anxious to find another and better home were the hard- 
ships which their children had to bear and the temptations 
to which they were exposed. Beside this, they were pa- 
triotic and full of love of their God, their simple wor- 
ship, and their religious liberty. As Englishmen, though 
their king and his bishops had treated them cruelly, they 
still loved the laws, customs, speech and flag of their na- 
tive land. As they could not enjoy these in their own 
country, or longer endure their hard conditions in Hol- 
land, they determined to find a home — even though in a 
wild country beyond the wild ocean — where they might 
worship God as they chose, " plant religion," live as Eng- 
lishmen, and reap a fair reward for their labors. It was 
very hard to decide where to go, but at last they made up 
their minds in favor of the " northern parts of Virginia " 
in the " New World " across the Atlantic. They found 
friends to help them both in England and in Holland, and 
they helped themselves; but even then, owing to enemies, 
false friends, and many difficulties, it was far from easy 
to get away, and they had sore trials and disappointments. 

And now " the younger and stronger part "of Pastor 
Robinson's flock, with Captain Miles Standish and his wife 
Rose and a few others, were to go from Leyden, in charge 
of Elder Brewster and Deacon Carver, and some were to 




Copyright. Aupntus Saint-Gaudens, 1898. 



The Puritan, 
Statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 193 

join them in England, leaving the pastor and the rest to 
come afterward. 

It was a busy time in the Klock Steeg, or Bell Alley, 
where most of the Pilgrims lived, all the spring and early 
summer of 1620, when they were getting ready for America. 
Deacon Carver and Robert Cushman, two of their chief 
men, were in England, fitting out a hired ship — the May- 
flozver. But the Leyden leaders had bought in Holland a 
smaller ship, the Specdivcll, and were refitting her for the 
voyage, an English ''pilot," or ship's mate (Master Rey- 
nolds), having come over to take charge. (Bradford 
spells the word " pilott." He was in reality a mate, or 
" master's mate," as Bradford also calls him — the execu- 
tive navigating officer next in rank to the master. The 
term ^' pilott " had not to the same extent the meaning it 
has now of an expert guide into harbors and along coasts. 
It meant, rather, a " deck " or " watch " officer, capable 
of steering and navigating a ship. He was on board the 
Mayflozuer practically what the mate of a sailing-ship 
would be to-day.) Thirty-six men, fifteen women, sixteen 
boys, four girls, and a baby boy — seventy-two in all, 
besides sailors — made up the Leyden part of the Pilgrim 
company. Of these, six went no farther than Plymouth, 
Old England, though three of them afterwards joined the 
others in England. Of the fifteen women, fourteen were 
wives of colonists and one was a lady's-maid. The thirty- 
six men of Leyden included all who became Pilgrim lead- 
ers, except three. 

At last they were off, and on Friday, July 21 (31),^ 

1 Owing to a difference in the methods of reckoning time used by 
England and other nations between the years 1582 and 1752, — when 
all became practically alike, — it was common to make use of " double- 
dating." In so doing, the terms " Old Style " and " New Style " were 
X3 



194 Explorers and Settlers 

they said good-by to the grand old city that had been so 
long their home. Going aboard the canal-boats near the 
pastor's house, they floated down to Del f shaven, where 
their own little vessel, the Spcedzvell, lay waiting for them. 
At Del f shaven they made their last sad partings from their 
friends, and Saturday, July 22 (or August i, as we should 
call it), hoisted the flag of their native land, sailed down 
the river Maas, and Sunday morning were out upon the 
German Ocean, under way, with a fair wind, for the Eng- 
lish port of Southampton, where they were to join the other 
colonists. 

For three fine days they sailed down the North Sea, 
through Dover Straits, into the English Channel, and the 
fourth morning found them anchored in Southampton port. 
Here they found the Mayflower from London lying at 
anchor, with some of their own people — the Cushmans and 
Deacon Carver — and some forty other Pilgrim colonists 
who were going with them. Among these our Leyden 
young people were no doubt very glad to find eight more 
boys and six girls of all ages, two of them being Henry 
vSampson and Humility Cooper, little cousins of their own 
Edward Tilley, who was to take them with him. 

For ten days the two ships lay in this port. Trying- 
days for the elders indeed they were. Mr. Weston, their 
former friend (who had arranged with the merchants to 
help them, but was now turned traitor), came to see them, 
was very harsh, and went away angry. The passengers 
and cargoes had to be divided anew between the ships, 

used, and to make the dates of the former and the latter correspond, 
ten days are added to all dates of the period between 1582 and 1700, 
eleven days to those between 1700 and 1800, and twelve days to those 
between 1800 and 1900. December 11, 1620, Old Style, would be by 
our present reckoning December 21, 1620 ("Forefathers' Day"). 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 195 

thirty persons going to the Speedzvell and ninety to the 
Mayflozver. Then the pinnace sprung a leak and had to 
be reladen. To pay their '' Port charges " they were forced 
to sell most of their butter. And there were many sad 
and anxious hearts. But great times those ten days were 
for the larger boys and girls who were allowed to go 
ashore on the West Quay (at which the ships lay), and to 




The first morning ashore in the New World. 

whom every day was full of new sights, both aboard the 
vessels and ashore. " Governors " were chosen for the 
ships ; a young cooper — John Alden — was found, to go 
over, do their work, and come back, if he wished, on the 
Mayflozver ; and all was at last ready. They said what 
they thought were their last farewells to England, and 
down the Solent, out by the lovely Isle of Wight, into the 



196 Explorers and Settlers 

broad Channel, both ships sailed slowly, " outward 
bound." 

But twice more the leaky Speedwell and her cowardly 
master made both ships seek harbor — first at Dartmouth, 
where they lay ten days wdiile the pinnace was overhauled 
and repaired, and again at Plymouth, after they had sailed 
" above 100 leagues beyond Land's End." At Plymouth 
it was decided that the Speedzvell should give up the voy- 
age and transfer most of her passengers and lading to the 
Mayflozver, which would then make her belated way over 
the ocean alone. 

Some twenty passengers — the Cushmans, the Blossoms, 
and others — went back to London in the pinnace, and 
after a weary stay of nine days, on Wednesday, September 
6 (16), the lone Pilgrim ship at last " shook off the land " 
and, with a fair wind, laid her course for " the northern 
coast of Virginia." 

One hundred and two passengers sailed from Plymouth 
on the Mayflozver. They had been so constantly stirred 
up, in so many ways, since leaving Leyden or London, 
that they were glad to settle themselves at last for their 
long voyage. After the two ships' companies were united, 
Carver became Governor (in place of Mr. Martin, the 
treasurer, who made many enemies), and though the ves- 
sel was badly crowded, and of course many were seasick, 
things were soon in order, and with the fine weather which 
lasted till they were half-way over the sea all were soon 
used to the ship life. 

But who were the passengers? Of the seventy-six who 
came from Leyden six went back, leaving seventy, and there 
were but thirty-two left of those who joined at South- 
ampton. Of these thirty-two, nine were men, four young 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 197 

men, five women (wives), eight were boys, and six girls. 
So there were, in all, forty-four men (including the hired 
seamen and servants of full age), nineteen women, twenty- 
nine young men, boys, and male (minor) servants, and 
ten girls of all ages. 

The master of the Pilgrim ship was Thomas Jones, " a 
rough sea-dog " who had been a pirate, but was a good navi- 
gator and had sailed one or more voyages to " Virginia " 
(as all North America was then called). The first mate 
(or "pilot") was John Clarke, a quiet man and good 
officer, who had also been to '' Virginia " ; the second mate 
(or "pilot") being Robert Coppin, an "over-smart" 
young man who had made one voyage to the New England 
coast. Besides these were the " ship's merchant," or su- 
percargo, Mr. Williamson, a fine man, who had doubtless 
also been in some parts of " Virginia," as he seems to have 
known the Indian " lingo," and lastly, the ship's surgeon, 
Giles Heale, of whom we know very little. 

Not much that is good can be said of Master Jones, 
and his record is wholly bad. He inspired confidence only 
in his skill as a seaman and sportsman. The Pilgrim lead- 
ers evidently made little talk with him, and we may be 
sure that the young folks feared him. He died a pirate. 
Clarke was modest and faithful, one in whom all seem to 
have had confidence. Coppin was not, as a certain au- 
thor has portrayed him, " old," " saintly," or even a 
"pilot" (in the sense of a guide), and he was but the 
third officer of the Pilgrim ship, and of very little ac- 
count, though he came very near wrecking the Colony 
by his blunders on the shallop's first visit to Plymouth 
harbor. 

If our young folks of to-day could see the old May- 



198 Explorers and Settlers 

flozuer they would think her a queer sort of ship, with her 
high, three-decked stern, high forecastle, stumpy masts, 
big lateen sail, toy cannon, bowsprit sails, funny anchors, 
etc. She was no less queer inside, for her main deck 
after-house was divided up into little cabins for the women 
and girls, set around a central cabin, or saloon; the deck- 
house above was taken up by the officers' quarters; while 
in the " between-decks " were the little cabins and bunks 
of the men and boys who were passengers, and their crude 
appliances for fire and cooking. 

The high, tilting, pitching poop-deck at the stern was 
no place to play shovel-board or ring-toss, as one does 
to-day on an ocean liner, or, in fact, for any one to be 
without good sea-legs. The deck-space in the " waist," or 
middle, of the ship was apt to be very wet and unsafe be- 
cause of the breaking seas, and in very rough weather 
there were above decks no places where even the men and 
larger boys could safely stay. 

John Rowland, one of the Leyden young men, proved 
this. " Coming above the gratings [i. e., upon the high 
after-deck] he was, by a sudden seel [roll] of the ship," 
tossed overboard, and would surely have drowned if he 
had not caught hold of a rope trailing alongside, and, 
though he was buried deep under the waves, held on, and 
by means of the rope and a boat-hook was drawn into 
the ship. Though he was ill after this escape, he lived 
many years to tell the story to his grandchildren, and be- 
came a prominent man in the Pilgrim Colony. 

The Pilgrim leaders very wisely bought a large sail- 
boat, or shallop, for fishing, and to take them from place 
to place; but when they tried to put it aboard the May- 
flozver it was so large they had to cut it down to stow it 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 199 



between decks. They got it in, and as the men and boys 
could not stand or lie about the decks in stormy weather, 
they lay in the shallop. It must, in fact, have been a fa- 
vorite lounging-place during the voyage, for Bradford says 
that the shallop '' was much opened [i. e., her seams were 
opened] with the people lying in her." 

In the beautiful weather which they had for weeks under 
the harvest moon, after they , 

left the land, many of the 
passengers could walk or lie 
about the decks at times; 
could sometimes cook (no 
very easy matter at sea in 
those days ) ; could chat with 
old friends or new acquaint- 
ances; and could give the lit- 
tle ones, now and then, a 
whifif on deck of the fresh 
air and a sight of the big 
ship and the sea. 

A sharp change of weather 
came all too soon, and heavy 
gales, wild seas, and severe 
storms followed the fine days 

and nights. '' The ship was shrewdly [roughly] shaken 
and upper works made very leaky. One of the main 
[deck] beams in the midships was bowed and cracked 
and [there was] some fear that the ship could not perform 
the voyage." Clearly there was great anxiety and alarm 
and some danger. Fortunately a passenger had brought 
a jack-screw aboard, by which the bent deck-beam was 
forced up into its place, so that a post was set under it, 




Armor worn by the Pilgrims 
in 1620. 



200 Explorers and Settlers 

the leaky decks were calked, and the danger and discom- 
fort lessened. The jack-screw has become historic and 
is sometimes said to have saved the ship and Colony; but 
a few wedges would have done as well. 

In late October, after the fine weather had come again, 
a son was born to Mistress Elizabeth Hopkins, the wife 
of Master Stephen Hopkins. This boy was named 
Oceanus in commemoration of his having been born at 
sea. 

A few days after the birth of the first child to the 
colonists, the first death occurred among them — though 
one of the crew had died before. William Butten, Dr. 
Fuller's servant-assistant, who had come with him from 
Leyden, — and was no doubt known to all the Mayflozver 
boys and girls as " Billy Butten," — died and was buried 
in the sea. Although they were now nearing land and 
were full of joy and hope at thought of it, there can be 
no doubt that as Elder Brewster offered prayer, and the 
shrouded form slid into the dark waters, there were many 
saddened hearts among those who had known the poor 
boy in the old Dutch city. 

All were now anxiously watching for signs of land, and 
three days later, on the morning of Friday, November lo 
(20), at daybreak, the lookout at the masthead gave the 
welcome cry of " Land, ho ! " They made it out to be 
" Cape Cod," as named by the navigator Gosnold, and laid 
down on the chart of Captain John Smith — of Pocahon- 
tas fame — as '' Cape James." 

But they were not yet where they meant to land, so they 
" squared away " around the cape for the mouth of '' Hud- 
son's River," little dreaming of the plot to be sprung upon 
them, or how soon they would turn back. Not long after 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 201 

noon the ship was in tlie midst of dangerous " rips and 
shoals " off the easterly shore of the cape, and, after much 
(apparent) trouble, got out of them before dark. The 
wind shifted to " dead ahead," and Master Jones declared 




Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth. 

it impossible to go on, and that he should go back to Cape 
Cod harbor. 

We know now that he had been hired and ordered by 
his employers, Thomas Weston and Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, and by the Earl of Warwick, whose evil work 
he had long done, to land his passengers somewhere north 
of the forty-first parallel of north latitude. They would 
then be within the territory of the Council of Affairs for 
New England, controlled by the wily Gorges, who had 
long wanted these Pilgrim colonists and plotted and ma- 
noeuvered to get them upon his domain. This was Master 



202 Explorers and Settlers 

Jones's chance, and he was quick to seize it, and so steal 
the Pilgrim Colony for his masters from the London Vir- 
ginia Company, who were the colonists' friends and pa- 
trons. 

So round again the good ship went for the harbor of 
Cape Cod. All night under '^ short sail " she worked 
slowly back to the '' sighting " point. And now another 
trouble arose ; for as soon as it was determined to go about 
and land farther north, Stephen Hopkins, John Billington, 
and others of the colonists who joined in England, began 
to whisper that if they settled on territory not covered by 
their " patente," neither Governor Carver nor any other 
would have authority over them, and that " when they 
came ashore they would use their own libertie." 

To meet this difficulty the Leyden leaders and others 
drew up that famous " Compact " by which the first " civill 
body politick " was organized in America, and '* govern- 
ment by consent of the governed " was first set up. A 
little beginning for such mighty results ! 

Saturday morning, November ii (21), found them just 
north of the cape, with only the harbor to reach. Brad- 
ford says: *' This day before we came to harbor . 
it was thought good there should be an association and 
agreement, that we should combine together in one body, 
and to submit to such government and governors, as we 
should by common consent make and choose." So while 
the ship was slowly " beating " into harbor the " Com- 
pact " was made and signed, Carver was " confirmed " as 
Governor, and the peace and good order of the Pilgrim 
Colony were made secure. 

They sounded their way carefully into the harbor, and, 
circling round it, let go their anchors, three quarters of 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 203 

a mile from shore, under the wooded point (now Long 
Point, Provincetown harbor) separating the harbor from 
the sea — sixty-seven days from Plymouth, ninety-nine 
from Southampton, one hundred and twenty-nine from 
London. 

To get out the long-boat and set ashore " a party of 
fifteen or sixteen men in armor, and some to fetch wood, 
having none left, landing them on the long point toward the 
sea," was the work of an hour. The party returned at 
night, having seen no person or habitation, but with the 
boat loaded with juniper wood (savin), and fires were 
soon lighted between decks. 

Their first Sunday in New England, we may be sure, 
was a quiet, grateful, and restful one; but they were up 
betimes on Monday, got out their shallop, and set the car- 
penters to work on her. The women went ashore to wash 
their clothes in the fresh water of a near-by beach pond; 
but the water was shallow where they landed, and the 
men had to wade ashore from the boats and carry the 
women, bundles, and kettles. A very merry time they no 
doubt had, that first morning ashore in the New World, 
and a sight it was at which to have snapped a kodak; but, 
alas! many colds were taken that day, from which some 
never recovered. 

" Some sickness began to fall among them," Bradford 
tells us, but with soldierly steadiness they closed ranks 
where one or another dropped out, and bravely sent out 
two expeditions to spy out the land and find a fit place 
for them to inhabit. They saw a few Indians at a distance, 
found their habitations, graves, and concealed corn, a few 
deer, wild fowl and sassafras in plenty, and good water, 
but no good place for a home. The weather changed sud- 



204 Explorers and Settlers 

denly, — was cold and stormy ; the ground froze, and Mas- 
ter Jones became surly and domineering. 

On Wednesday, December 13 (23), the third explor- 
ing party returned to meet sorrowful news, but bearing 
good tidings. They had a short but fierce encounter with 
Indians (Nausets), and met a severe gale with snow later 
the same day, in which they were very near being cast 
away in making a harbor which Master Coppin thought he 
knew, but about which he was mistaken. They — and 
the Colony — were saved by the quick sense and pluck 
of Thomas English, master of the shallop, and landed on 
an island which they named for Master Clarke, the first 
mate, and spent two days there. 

On Monday, December 11 (21), which we now call 
" Forefathers' Day," they examined and sounded the har- 
bor, landed on a rock upon the shore (the now famous 
''Plymouth Rock"), found a good town-cite, and agreed 
upon it as the place for settlement — the colonists ap- 
proving the same upon their report. 

On Friday, December 15 (25), the ship weighed anchor 
to go to the place agreed upon (which is called '' Plimoth " 
by Captain John Smith upon his chart of 1616) after 
lying in Cape Cod harbor five weeks and losing four of 
her company. The shallop piloted them across the bay, 
but when within six miles, the wind coming northwest, 
they could not get into the harbor, and were forced to go 
back to their old anchorage. This would have been Christ- 
mas day according to our present reckoning, but was ten 
days earlier by theirs. 

The next day, December 16 (26), the wind again being 
fair, ship and shallop took final departure from Cape Cod, 
this time made Plymouth harbor safely, and the shallop 



How the Pilgrims Came to Plymouth 205 

piloted the ship to the anchorage she had sounded out for 
her the Monday before. A Httle before dark the weary 
but immortal Mayflower let go her anchors just within a 
long spur of beach a mile and a half from the landing 
rock — one hundred and two days from Plymouth to Ply- 
mouth, one hundred and fifty-five from London. The 
Pilgrim voyage was over. 

On the morrow they began to lay the foundations of 
the Pilgrim RepubHc, with Liberty for their corner-stone. 




CHRISTMAS ON THE MAYFLOWER 
By Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

Historians take so little note of the doings of women 
and children that I presume not one of my readers ever 
heard of Christmas on the Mayflozver; and yet the un- 
written history of individuals and nations is always most 
interesting. I am indebted for my facts to Elizabeth Tudor 
Brewster, named after the Queen. She was a favorite 
niece of Elder William Brewster, who went to Holland 
with the Pilgrims, and lived there several years. My hus- 
band's mother was a Brewster, and into her hands came 
many of the private family letters, dim and yellow with 
time, and among others this account of Christmas. 

While yet at sea, the mothers began to discuss the 
probabilities of reaching land by December 25, and having 
some little celebration for the children, as they had half a 
dozen on board of the right age to enjoy some holiday 
performances. The foremothers who came from Holland 
had imbibed the Dutch love for festive occasions, and were 
more liberal in their views than the rigid Puritans direct 
from England, who objected to all the legends of old Saint 
Nicholas. But Elder Brewster, then seventy-nine years 
old, and loving children tenderly, gave his vote for the 
celebration. Accordingly, as they sailed up the beautiful 
harbor of Plymouth, the mothers were busy in their prepa- 
rations for the glad day. Knowing the fondness of Indians 
for beads, they had brought a large box of all sizes and 

206 



Christmas on the Mayflower 207 



colors, which they were stringing for the little Indians, 
as they intended to invite a few of them to come on board 
the ship. The mothers had also brought a barrel full of 
ivy, holly, laurel, and immortelles, to decorate their log 
cabins. Of these they made wreaths to ornament the chil- 
dren and the saloon. As soon as the Mayflower cast an- 
chor, Elder Brewster 
and his interpreter, and 
as many of the fathers 
and mothers as the little 
boats would hold, went 
ashore to make arrange- 
ments about their cabins, 
to visit the squaws and 
invite the children. The 
interpreter explained to 
them the meaning or 
significance of Christ- 
mas, the custom of ex- 
changing gifts, etc., and 
they readily accepted the 
invitation. Massasoit was 
sachem of the Wampa- 
noags and chief at this 
point. The yellow fever had reduced his tribe, once esti- 
mated at thirty thousand, down to three hundred, now 
scattered all along the southern coast of Massachusetts. 

When the Pilgrims landed there were only a few huts 
at that point. But the noble chief Massasoit was there, 
fortunately for our little colony, consisting only of one 
hundred and two, all told — men, women, and children. 




Christmas Dinner on the May- 
flower. 



2o8 Explorers and Settlers 

Massasoit was a splendid specimen of manhood, honest, 
benevolent, and he loved peace. When Christmas dawned, 
bright and beautiful, he came on board with two squaws 
and six little boys and girls, all in their ornaments, paint, 
and feathers, the children in bright scarlet blankets, and 
caps made of white rabbit-skins, the little ears standing 
up on their foreheads, and squirrel tails hanging down 
their backs. Each one carried a small basket containing 
beech- and hickory-nuts and wintergreen-berries which 
they presented gracefully to the English children standing 
in a line ready to receive them. The interpreter had 
taught them to say " Happy to see you," " Welcome," and 
" Farewell " in the Indian tongues. So they shook hands 
and received the natives graciously, presenting them, in 
turn, with little tin pails filled with fried cakes, almonds 
and raisins, some bright English pennies, a horn, and a 
drum. . The mothers tied strings of beads round their 
necks, wrists, and ankles, with which they were greatly 
pleased. 

They went all over the ship, and asked many questions 
about all they saw. When Massasoit proposed to go, the 
mothers urged him to stay to dinner, but he declined, say- 
ing that they did not understand English customs in eating, 
and that the children would not know how to use knives, 
forks, and spoons. 

Moreover, he said they never ate except when they were 
hungry, and the sun was still too high for that. 

The exchanging of presents was a very pretty ceremony, 
and when they were ready to depart, the good elder placed 
his hands on each little head, giving a short prayer and 
his blessing. While all this was transpiring the squaws 
asked the foremothers to give them beads, which they 



Christmas on the Mayflower 209 

readily did, and placed wreaths of ivy on their heads. As 
they paddled away in their little canoes, the horns and 
drums sounded. 

Then the mothers decorated their tables and spread out 
a grand Christmas dinner. Among other things, they 
brought a box of plum-puddings. It is an English custom 
to make a large number of plum-puddings at Christmas- 
time, and shut them up tight in small tin pails and hang 
them on hooks on the kitchen wall, where they keep for 
months. You see them in English kitchens to this day. 
With their plum-puddings, gooseberry-tarts, Brussels 
sprouts, salt fish, and bacon, the Pilgrims had quite a sump- 
tuous dinner. Then they sang " God Save the King," and 
went on deck to watch the sun go down and the moon rise 
in all her glory. 

The children took their little baskets to their berths, the 
last objects of interest on which their eyes rested as they 
fell asleep. 



The Pilgrim spirit has not fled; 

It walks in noon's broad light ; 
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead, 

With the holy stars by night. 
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled, 

And still guard this ice-bound shore. 
Till the waves of the bay, where the Mayflower lay, 

Shall foam and breeze no more. 

John Pierpont. 



14 



MILES STANDISH AND THE INDIANS 
By Tudor Jenks 

In reading the brief accounts given in general histories, 
one thinks of the Pilgrim settlement as being an instant 
change from life on shipboard to life in a wilderness; 
but it has already been shown how different from this is 
the impression given when we read the settlers' own ac- 
count. 

Yet one might know that prudent men and women would 
not enter upon so new a life without the utmost caution. 
The Mayflower was to the settlers what a base of supplies 
and a fortress is to a prudent general advancing into an 
enemy's country. It was not to be abandoned until they 
had secured a firm foothold on land and had made them- 
selves to some degree a self-supporting community. 

They had now built the *' Common " or town house, 
and a number of dwellings, besides a shed for storing their 
provisions, had brought most of their stores ashore, ajid 
were fairly well established. 

We do not know exactly what the houses were like, but 
they were of logs, with a thatch of sea-grass laid on thickly, 
chimneys of stones plastered with clay, and rude shutters 
and doors roughly cut. 

Illness was very general, for they were all living mainly 
upon the salted ship's-stores, and the salt of the time, being 
made by evaporation, was impure. Every day or two 
there was a death in the little community, but the work 



Miles Standish and the Indians 211 

was carried sturdily on, though it was necessary to make 
a hospital of one of the cottages. Here the sick were 
cared for by their doctor, whose name was Fuller, and 
probably had as good treatment as they would have found 
at home, except in the matter of diet. 

Now and then their work was delayed by the weather, 
but it is likely that these periods of rest were not entirely 
unwelcomed. The clay daubing of their chimneys was 
washed out by the rain, and since the Mayflozver was not 
loaded, she was much tossed and racked when the wind 
blew, and this caused anxiety. 

Their new home furnished them with some fresh food, 
for we are told of their shooting geese, of finding a dead 
deer the Indians had abandoned after cutting off the 
antlers, of an occasional fish, though they had no proper 
hooks to catch in any quantity. The chief hardships they 
had so far undergone were due to causes they could not 
control, but this failure to bring suitable fish-hooks from 
the ports of England or Holland seems a piece of careless- 
ness. 

Meanwhile nothing had been seen of the Indians ex- 
cept during their first skirmish and except a glimpse now 
and then of a hunting party or a few stragglers. One 
Pilgrim while out hunting saw a dozen Indians apparently 
making toward Plymouth. He hurried home, and the 
guard was called out by Miles Standish, but after their 
matchlocks and snaphances, their breastplates and swords 
had been made ready they had to be put away again, for 
no Indians then appeared, though Standish and another 
missed some tools they had left in the woods in the hurry 
of the alarm. 

The settlers thought it wise to organize a regular guard. 



212 



Explorers and Settlers 



seeing that the Indians were near, and a meeting was called 
Saturday, February 27, Standish chosen captain, and their 
weapons cleaned and made ready. During their meeting 
two Indians appeared on the hill ("Watson's Hill") just 
south of the settlement, across the brook, about a quarter 
of a mile away, making signs inviting the white men to 
come. The settlers beckoned in return, but armed them- 
selves, at the same time sending Standish and Stephen 
Hopkins over the brook toward them. These white men 
had one musket, and laid it on the ground in sign of peace. 
The two Indians retreated, and '' a noise of a great many 
more was heard behind the hill; but no more came in 
sight." 

The settlers had five cannon, one being already ashore, 
and on the following Wednesday Captain Jones and his 
sailors brought the rest, and helped to drag them up the high 
bluff back of the settlement, where they were mounted in 
the place considered the best to command the neighborhood 
in case of an Indian attack. 

Another thing that showed the pru- 
dence of the settlers in regard to the 
Indians was the care they took to con- 
ceal how great were their losses by 
death. There were nearly half their 
number dead already, and fully half 
were gone before the spring came. 
It would never do to let the Indians 
suspect this, and so the mounds over 
the buried were leveled and planted 
with grain. An idea of the mortality 
is given by the fact that four died on the very day the 
guns were mounted, and at one time there were only seven 




Chair of Carver, first 
governor of Ply- 
mouth Colony. 



Miles Standish and the Indians 213 

men capable of work, of whom Captain Standish was one. 
These seven, says Bradford, their historian, tended the sick, 
washed the clothing, and made themselves men-of -all-work 
for the whole settlement. The thought of the grim warrior 
and the sedate William Brewster washing at the tubs and 
doing the offices of the sick-room makes one realize the 
difference between the real and the mock heroic, and car- 
ries a moral in regard to true and false dignity. The 
heart warms toward the gallant captain, whose acts, even 
as told in the dry chronicles of the time, indicate a char- 
acter so forcible and yet so gentle in its manliness. The 
captain, too, had had his own troubles, for his wife, Rose, 
whom he had married from the Isle of Man, was among 
those who were unable to survive the hardships of that 
first winter. One hundred and two passengers were in 
the Mayflozuer, and while they were at sea one died and 
one was born. Another was born in the harbor. Of these 
only fifty-one survived on November 19, 1621, and of the 
survivors there were twelve women and two girls, thirty- 
two men and five boys. Out of eighteen wives only four 
survived the winter, Bradford's wife being drowned in the 
harbor. 

One is glad to finish the statement of these facts, and 
to turn from the winter toward the coming of spring, and 
the beginning of prosperity. Imagine with what joy the 
patient sufferers welcomed the arbutus, the hepatica, the 
first chirping of the birds that promised them brighter 
days ! With warmer weather they would soon have noth- 
ing to fear except the Indians, and their dread of these un- 
known foes was soon to be removed. 

On March 13 it is recorded that after a misty morning 
came a bright noon when " the birds sang in the woods 



214 Explorers and Settlers 

most pleasantly," but a thunder-storm — the first they had 
seen in America — brought heavy rain until midnight. A 
few days later they went to explore the ponds near Ply- 
mouth, and found deer-tracks. Seeds were sown soon 
after, probably of garden vegetables, and there was an evi- 
dent abating of their sickness. 

On March 26 it was resolved to complete their plans for 
forming a military force, since their former meeting had 
been interrupted by the coming of the Indians. But hardly 
had they gathered when again came the same interruption, 
but this time in an amazing form. 

An Indian came boldly walking past the houses to the 
place of meeting, and even offered to enter their town 
hall. " He saluted us in English, and bade us ' Welcome ! ' 
for he had learned some broken English amongst the Eng- 
lishmen that came to fish at Monchiggon," Bradford 
writes, meaning Monhegan, Maine, then frequented by 
fishing-boats. The new-comer was as talka- 
tive as his knowledge of their language per- 
mitted, and evidently impressed the Pilgrims 
by his dignified bearing. They had never 
before met an Indian, and we can imagine 
the curiosity with which they pressed around 
P^^^'l"*^!, plotter ^Q learn somethino^ of the disposition of these 

of Allies ^ ^ 

Standish. people toward them. He told them he was 

a sagamore, or chief, from the north, a day's sail by sea, five 
days' land- journey distant. They fed him and threw an 
overcoat over his shoulders, for he wore only a fringed 
leather belt about his middle. 

Samoset, their new friend, also explained how it was 
they had found so many traces of Indian life and yet had 
met no inhabitants. There had been " an extraordinary 




Miles Standish and the Indians 215 

plague " that had exterminated or driven away a whole 
community at this place, Patuxet, or " Little Bay," which 
was the Indian name for the region around Plymouth, 
leaving it free to the first comers. 

After talking all the afternoon the Pilgrims were quite 
willing to see their guest depart, but he was in no hurry; 
so they tried to send him in the shallop to the Mayflozver, 
but wind and tide forbade, and he was lodged in one of the 
houses, well guarded. 

The Pilgrims had learned from Samoset that the In- 
dians were about sixty in number, and that of the Nausets, 
another band, there were about a hundred. These Nau- 
sets were hostile, had already fought with some explorers, 
and had slain three. They were justly angry with the 
English because a sea-captain had carried away some of 
their tribe, selling them into slavery, and therefore they 
had attacked the Pilgrim exploring party on Cape 
Cod. 

Samoset also had heard of the tools taken from the 
woods where Standish and his companion had left them 
when summoned to arms on February 26, a month before ; 
and so the Pilgrims sent by him a message demanding the 
return of the stolen goods. This boldness seems like the 
usual action of the captain himself, and probably the mes- 
sage was inspired by him. 

In the morning Samoset was dismissed with presents, 
and he promised to return soon, with some of the Massa- 
soits, to trade. He appeared next day, which was Sunday, 
bringing five others. These were better dressed, wearing 
long leggings and their breech-clouts, and also deerskin 
cloaks. Their weapons were left at a distance from the 
settlement, and they were liberally entertained. In return 



2l6 Explorers and Settlers 

they danced and sang for the English, and then offered 
skins for barter. The Pilgrims refused to trade, because 
it was Sunday, and because they wished to have more of 
the beaver-skins brought. The stolen tools were restored, 
and all of the Indians dismissed except Samoset, who was 
sick or pretended illness so that he might remain until 
Wednesday, on which day he was sent to recall the rest, 
having been kindly treated and having received some Eng- 
lish clothing. 

On the same day another attempt to complete the plans 
for their military force was made, and a third time in- 
terrupted by the appearance of Indians on the hill. These 
''made semblance of daring us," the historian says; so 
Captain Standish took three men and went toward the 
strangers, whereupon they ran away. As it was a fine 
warm day, the sick carpenter was persuaded to finish the 
big shallop, and then all the passengers were brought from 
the Mayftozver to the settlement. 

Thus the real, final landing was made on that Wednes- 
day, the last day of March, 1621, fully eight months after 
they had sailed from Holland, and in warm, springlike 
weather. This, though less romantic, was assuredly a 
much more sensible proceeding than to plunge into an un- 
known wilderness in midwinter. 

Though these Indians brought some skins and fish to 
trade, they met with little attention, for they also brought 
news of the approach of their '' great Sagamore," Massa- 
soit. This ruler's visit meant much to the settlers, as he 
was the chief of their nearest neighbors, and upon his 
word it depended whether these Indians were to be their 
friends or foes. 

Within an hour appeared the chief, his brother, and 



Miles Standish and the Indians 217 

about sixty warriors. The savages halted on the hill south 
of the settlement, and then arose the question which party 
should trust the other, Squanto being interpreter. At last 
Edward Winslow was sent to say that the Pilgrims wished 
to be friends, and to trade with the Indians ; and he carried 
for King Massasoit two knives and " a chain with a jewel 

to it" as gifts of 

amity, and similar 
gifts for the king's 
brother, Quadequina. 
There were also 
some biscuits, some 
butter, and some li- 
quor. We may be 
sure that Winslow 
well performed his 
mission, for in those 
days people believed 
sincerely in the no- 
tion that all kings 
were rulers by the 
grace of God, and 
hence took very seri- 
ously the pretensions 
of even the pettiest 
native chieftains. Winslow did not presume to speak only 
for his own humble friends, but conveyed to the royal vis- 
itor the compliments of King James, and begged an alliance, 
saying also that their governor, John Carver, '' desired to 
see him and to truck [trade] with him, and to confirm a 
peace with him." 

All these high-sounding phrases were rendered somehow 




Indians fishing. 
From an old book published in 1590. 



2i8 Explorers and Settlers 

into the Indian tongue by Squanto or Samoset, and Wins- 
low was asked to eat and drink with them, while Massasoit 
admired and wished to buy the Englishman's sword and 
armor, and Winslow politely declined to sell. After the 
meal Massasoit decided to let his brother keep Winslow as 
hostage, and to risk a visit to the settlement. Taking some 
twenty unarmed men, Massasoit crossed the brook, and 
was met by Captain Standish and another with a file of 
musketeers. The parties saluted one another (how, is not 
told), and Standish escorted the royal guest to an unfin- 
ished cabin where a rug and cushions were spread out. 
Then the Pilgrim governor appeared, escorted by trumpeter, 
drummer, and more musketeers, kissed the royal hand and 
was graciously kissed by Massasoit, and the conference 
began with drinking of healths. Massasoit took a big 
drink, probably not knowing how strong the liquor was, 
and sweated profusely in consequence. 

The Indian chief is described as grave, sturdy, and in 
the prime of life. His only sign of rank was a cham of 
white beads around his neck. His face was painted dark 
red, and his hair and face oiled; in fact, all those Indians 
had painted their faces. 

There was a friendly talk, though Massasoit " trembled 
with fear" during the interview, and then a treaty of 
peace was made and put in writing by the Pilgrims, whereby 
these Indians and the settlers were to live In friendship 
and to be allies in any just war. Then Kmg Massasoit 
was escorted to the brook, and soon after the brother, 
Quadequina, made a visit with a large number of follow- 
ers. Peace having been made, the Indians showed a dis- 
position to linger about, examining the wonders brought 
by the white men from England; but the Pilgrims wisely 



Miles Standish and the Indians 219 

objected, and at nightfall the red men withdrew, camping 
within a half mile of the settlement, while the Englishmen 
prudently kept watch. 

The Indians promised to settle near by during the sum- 
mer, and to plant a field of corn south of the brook. 

Next day some of the Indians came again while Captain 
Standish went with Isaac Allerton to visit the Indian camp ; 
and then, after the Pilgrims had filled the '' King's Kettle " 
with peas, their dusky visitors departed early, to the set- 
tlers' relief. 

Only Samoset and Squanto remained, and the latter be- 
gan his kind offices by showing the English how they might 
catch eels. He waded into a stream (probably that since 
called Eel River), and treading in the mud stirred up the 
eels which he then caught in his hands. The settlers rel- 
ished this new food greatly, finding it sweet and nutritious. 

The fishing for eels being concluded, the Pilgrims were 
for the fifth time called to the business meeting that their 
Indian visitors had interrupted, and were able to adopt the 
rules and laws such '' as we thought behove ful for our 
present estate and condition." xA^nother important matter 
concluded at this time was the electing of John Carver as 
governor for a second term, '' a man well approved among 
us." 

It is noticeable that we have no hint of any ill-feeling or 
squabbling among these men, though the very fact that 
they had emigrated shows them to have been of character 
and of original thinking. Their long discipline when 
persecuted and when in a foreign land earning a living with 
their hands, had taught them the value of harmony and co- 
operation ; and this spirit made the colony strong and ef- 
fective. 



INDEX 



Alden, John, 195, 

American Traveler, the First, loi- 

IIO. 

Americus Vespucius, 57, 59. 
Armada, see Spanish. 
Asia, 25, 29, 30, 39, 60. 
Astronomy, 42, 43, 
Aztecs, 114. 

Balboa, 60, 61. 
Biarne, 8. 

Cabeza de Vaca, loi-iio. 

Cabot, 61, 63, 65, 146. 

Cartier, 66. 

Columbus, 15-35, 43, 44, 57, 63, 

117. 
Cortes, III. 
Customs in England, 127-132. 

Dare, Virginia, 161. 

De Leon, Ponce, 97-100. 

De Soto, 61. 

Drake, Sir, Francis, 122-123, 140, 

157. 
Dutch Times in New York, 171- 
184; see also New York. 

Earthly Paradise, 34. 
East Indies, 23, 28, 66. 
Elizabeth, 80, 102, 127. 
Elizabethan Boys, 133-144. 
Elizabethan England, 127-132. 
England of the Pilgrims, 127-132. 
Eric, the Red, 7, 13. 
Explorer, The, loi. 

Florida, 61, 104, 157. 
Fountain of Youth, 97-100. 
France, 66, d^. 
Fur-trading, 164, 175. 



Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 78-83, 140, 

146. 
Greenland, 7. 
Grenville, Sir Walter, 158. 

Hakluyt, Richard, 46, 47, 84. 
Half-Moon, 162, 171. 
Hawkins, Master John, 84. 
Hudson, Henry, 162, 171-175. 
Hudson River, 162, 171-184. 

Iceland, 6. 

India, 23, 45. 

Indians, z^, 92, 105, 107, 117, 152, 

162-170, 172, 204. 
Indians and Miles Standish, 210- 

219. 
Iroquois, The, 162-170. 
Isabella, 16. 

Jamestown, 145-155. 

Leif, 8, 13. 

Lost Colony, 156-161. 

Manhattan Island, 153, 171-184, 

185-188. 
Marco Polo, 29, 39, 40. 
Massasoit, 207-208, 218. 
Mayflower, 127, 193, 194, 196, 206- 

209, 210, 213. 
Mexico, 94, 105, 111-115. 
Middle Ages, 35, 36, 38. 
Minuit, Peter, 153. 

New Amsterdam, 171-184, 185- 

188. 
New Mexico, 108. 
New World, 22, 31-3S, 58. 
New World Described, 162, 163, 

195. 



221 



222 



Index 



New York, 171-184, 185-188. 
Nina, The, 17, 22. 
Northmen, 3, 10. 
Nova Scotia, 9, 66. 

Pacific, 60, 

Paradise in America, 34. 

Pepper, 35-46. 

PhiHp II of Spain, 74, 75. 

Pilgrims, 126, 127-132, 189-205, 

210-219. 
Pinta, The, 17, 20, 22. 
Plymouth, 189-205. 
Pocahontas, 151, 161. 
Ponce De Leon, 97-100. 
Portugal, 23-28, 41, 59. 
Potatoes, first in Europe, 79. 
Puritans, 189-205. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 47, 78-83, 127, 

146, 156, 158. 
Roanoke, 156-161. 

Saga, 4. 

San Salvador, 31, 117. 

Santa Maria, 17, 58. 

Santo Domingo, 104. 

Sargasso Sea, 19. 

Schenectady, 167. 

Settlers, The, and the Iroquois, 

162-170. 
Shakspere, 136. 
Slave-trade, 84, 85, 154. 
Smith, Capt. John, 132, 145, 146, 

151. 



Spain, 16, 57. 

Spanish, 60, 71, 88, in. 

Spanish Armada, 68-77, 84, 131, 

138, 139- 
Spherical Shape of Earth, 34. 
Standish, Miles, 127-132, 191. 
Standish, Miles, and the Indians, 

210-219. 
Stone- Age, 116-121. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 164, 181, 182, 

184. 

Texas, 108. 
Thor, 12. 
Tobacco, 79, 163, 
Toscanelli Family, 39, 42, 43. 

Vasco da Gama, 41. 

Vikings, 3, 4. 

Virginia, 47-56, 79, 146-154. 

Voyage, Cabot's, 64. 

Voyage, First, of Columbus, 15-22. 

Voyage of Raleigh and Gilbert, 

■ 78-83. 

Voyage to Virginia, 46-56. 

Voyage to the West Indies, 84-96. 

Voyages, Early, 57-67. 

Voyages of Henry Hudson, 171. 

Wampum, 163, f66. 
West Indies, 48, 84-96. 
Westward Ho!, 47. 
Woden, 12. 



APR » '9^2 



